Reporter covering criminal justice, healthcare, housing and more at The Lab Report Dallas. @dallasnews alumna. El Paso raised. 📩 [email protected].
Dallas, TX
Joined September 2017
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🧵 Life news!: I’m leaving @dallasnews after 4.5 great years, but I’m not going far.
I’m thrilled to announce I’m joining @SharonFGrigsby and @goodmoine at The Lab Report Dallas, an independent newsroom powered by the Child Poverty Action Lab. labreportdallas.org/
Kelli Smith retweeted
Student journalists rock. Most people moved on from the 2024 report of a terrible rape at Cornell, but the @cornellsun wouldn't let go and pushed for accountability. nytimes.com/2026/09/29/nyreg… by @emmabgo
Kelli Smith retweeted
BREAKING @TexasTribune: Following a yearslong lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman has ordered Texas to air condition all of the state’s prisons by the end of 2029 — a win for the plaintiffs.
texastribune.org/2026/09/22/…
For months, I’ve looked into Dallas' 14 adult specialty courts for @labreportdallas—diversion programs built to help vulnerable people. Research shows if they stray from best practices, they risk doing real harm.
Today, we published the investigation. 🧵
In 2025, records show, Texas called for rigorous reviews into half of Dallas' programs. Reports cited punitive jail sanctions, a lack of trauma-informed care and judges missing court. Accountability is elusive.
“If the judge doesn’t show up, what am I going to do?” the DA said.
I spent time in STAR, a felony prostitution program that has operated in Dallas since 2008. In the last year alone, 15 out of its 31 sessions were canceled.
Read the full investigation below:
labreportdallas.com/criminal…
Kelli Smith retweeted
Terrific profile of my good friend @ehennekelsja by @kellixsmith in the @labreportdallas. Was pleased to share my thoughts in this piece on how Elizabeth and @Official_LSJA are transforming juvenile justice, making Texas both safer and more redemptive! labreportdallas.com/criminal…
Kelli Smith retweeted
BREAKING: The company in charge of CPS cases in Dallas has been ousted. Now what? labreportdallas.com/public-s…
Kelli Smith retweeted
It's that time of year again: Oxford’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) has put out its 2026 Digital News Report. The Nieman Lab team broke down some key findings — including how people continue to abandon news sites and apps in favor of social media and, increasingly, chatbots to get their news.
niemanlab.org/2026/06/news-s…
In east Oak Cliff, a vacant lot in a high-crime area is undergoing a quiet transformation.
My dispatch from Dallas’ Prosperity Park, a site now run by kids:
labreportdallas.com/neighbor…
Kelli Smith retweeted
‘Teachers Are Going to Hate It’: How Social Media Apps Hooked Teens at School nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/so… via @NYTimes
Kelli Smith retweeted
Police officers have become fixtures in Texas schools since the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. Some have used heavy-handed tactics on children, often in response to minor misbehavior, an @nytimes @ExpressNews investigation found.
expressnews.com/news/educati…
Dallas used pandemic relief funds to fix houses in Oak Cliff and elsewhere. But in the Tenth Street Historic District, promises remain broken.
An important @goodmoine story worth the time to read:
labreportdallas.com/public-s…
After 47 people were connected to housing or treatment, a major South Dallas homeless camp was set to close Thursday via police and city crews.
Housing Forward, which led the initiative, says it didn't expect police to detain all 23 people they came across that morning. 🧵👇
Some of the detained said they'd already placed in housing and had just returned that morning to gather their belongings.
For @labreportdallas, I dove into what happened at the break of dawn last Thursday—and the debate over Dallas' homelessness strategy:
labreportdallas.com/criminal…
281 detentions. $500 fines. A mounting pile of warrants.
Records show a new Dallas PD team has zip-tied unhoused people across 61 locations in a pivot toward enforcement. My latest @labreportdallas on the city’s new approach—and the alarm it’s sounding:
labreportdallas.com/criminal…
Kelli Smith retweeted
Breaking @TexasTribune: Dallas PD revise ICE policy after Gov. Abbott threatened funding. Most notably, the new version cut language that says officers may not prolong detention to further investigate people's immigration status or to hold them for ICE. shorturl.at/n1Zhf
Not long ago, Dallas' juvenile justice system reached a crisis point. Families were decrying inhumane conditions, and researchers ID’d kids who hadn’t needed to be jailed at all.
County leaders say that’s begun to change—and a new report backs that up:
labreportdallas.com/p/dallas…
Kelli Smith retweeted
The foster care system is in big trouble in North Texas. A baby and an infant have died. A judge today appointed a receiver over the nonprofit handling case management. Before the ruling, @SharonFGrigsby had spent weeks in court watching things go wrong. labreportdallas.com/p/the-pr…
For weeks I analyzed where Dallas PD allocates patrol officers and what that says about its priorities. It raised a complicated question: How do top cops manage staffing for perception vs. risk in a big city like Dallas?
I tried to make sense of the data for @labreportdallas.
After DPD faced a spike in violence in 2020, priorities appeared to shift. Patrol staffing fell 12% from 2020-24, and response times shot up.
The patrol bureau began to grow again in 2025—but some neighborhoods are benefiting more than others.
More here:
labreportdallas.com/p/dallas…
