An officer may not answer your 911 call under a new plan for Fort Worth’s police
Fort Worth TX August 16 2020
A greater amount of the Fort Worth Police Department’s special sales tax fund, which voters locked in for another decade, will be spent with nonprofits, civilian response teams and other alternatives to traditional policing, according to a proposal Chief Ed Kraus pitched City Council members Friday.
Discussions about changing how officers respond to calls and what the department funds began after a Fort Worth officer killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home last October. The incident made clear that officers should not respond to some calls, Kraus told the Star-Telegram, and a greater emphasis should be placed community-based programs.
Fort Worth provides more than $80 million to the police through a sales tax known as the Crime Control and Prevention District. In the past that budget has skewed toward enhanced enforcement, like SWAT, and equipment funding. Kraus and Deputy City Manager Jay Chapa developed a $81.4 million budget that expands a mental health team, increases funding to nonprofits that help fight crime and creates a civilian response program. The budget cuts funding for some equipment while shifting other programs to the general fund, which provides more than $267 million to the department.
The city faced criticism ahead of the May election that the sales tax fund amounted to a “police slush fund” that no longer serves the public. Coalitions focused on social justice and police reform campaigned to eliminate the tax so it could re-approved with a greater focus on funding nonprofits, public transit and other non-police programs. Protests have called on the department to defund the police in favor of alternatives to traditional policing.
“I want people to be unequivocally clear that this is not a defunding nor is this a reduction,” Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said. “This is support for our police department and support for our community to come together.”
Enhanced enforcement programs and equipment, despite being cut $1.4 million and $7.4 million, remain the largest line items in the sales tax fund.
Funding for Partners with a Shared Mission, a category that includes after school-programs and nonprofit partnerships, increases from 6% of the sales tax fund to 10%. The extra money provides a more than 60% boost to nonprofits that work with the police department to provide social services and other programs aimed at reducing crime. Those programs can now compete for more than $2 million, up from $250,000. That fund had been unchanged for at least five years, despite growing sales tax revenue.
Chapa said roughly $500,000 has already been awarded, and the city will take more requests in the coming months.
One of the programs looking for funding through crime prevention district is VIP FW. The program works the Stop Six, Eastwood, Meadowbrook, Hattie and Morningside neighborhoods and the Allen Street corridor to reduce violent crime. The program could also include the Las Vegas Trail area.
Kraus proposed shifting funding for SWAT and the Special Response Team to the city’s general fund and moving the Crisis Intervention Team to the sales tax fund. That team, a group of specially trained officers that responds along side mental health professionals, works one shift, five days a week with eight members. Kraus wants to increase the program to two teams of 10 to cover two shifts seven days a week.
Along with that, the department will create a Mental Health Advisory Committee to guide how officers respond to calls involving psychological distress. The hope is a nonprofit group will help eventuate calls and direct people to the proper resources without having to dispatch an officer. A partnership with the county will result in a mental health diversion program that will be finalized by the end of the year, Kraus said.
The police department works with MHMR Tarrant but Kraus said he is exploring an additional partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
All officers, not just the crisis team, will be trained in how to respond to mental health issues.
The department will also establish a Community Service Program that relies on trained civilians to respond to non-emergency calls. The pilot team will consist of 10 civilians who will be trained to handle welfare checks, take incident reports and respond to minor accidents, among other things.
“One of the big things we talked about after Atatiana was ‘Do police officers need to answer certain calls?’” Kraus said, adding that the number of calls officers respond to will likely be significant less.
On the night Jefferson was shot, Aaron Dean and another police officer were responding to call from a neighbor concerned about her front door being open. The officers approached the back of the house, and Dean shot Jefferson through her window. He resigned and has been indicted on a murder charge.
Mayor Pro Temp Jungus Jordan praised the chief’s vision during the briefing, but said the city would need to train and communicate with the public so it’s clear that an officer will not always respond to a call.
“The expectation of the customer, or the citizen, is going to go have to change,” Jordan said. “It’s going to take a lot of outreach.”
Discussions about shifting a greater amount of money to the crisis team and other programs began in January, Chapa said. He and Kraus wanted to use an expected 4-5% growth in the sales tax to increase the team as well as boost nonprofits that partner with the department.
Chapa told the Star-Telegram they considered it an uphill battle as often the department is resistant to diverting money from traditional policing. But increased scrutiny on policing and calls for changing how money is spent on law enforcement following the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis has made it easier to make changes, Chapa said.
During discussion, the council voiced support for the budget and offered some suggestions.
Councilman Carlos Flores told Kraus he wanted to see the department explore a bicycle patrol for the Stockyards district and the surrounding neighborhood.
A lack of racial diversity, particularly the number of Black officers, concerned councilwoman Gyna Bivens, who told Kraus she wanted specifics about how the department would better recruit Black cadets.
Kraus, who has served in the department for nearly 30 years, is set to retire by the end of the year. A search for a replacement will begin in the coming weeks, but Chapa said there will likely be no change to the department’s increased focus on community-based programs.
“We’re not going to be looking for a police chief that doesn’t believe in these ideals,” Chapa said.
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