Brooks Burris
On May 25, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis, died after Derek Chavin, a white police officer, pinned him to the ground and knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds with three fellow officers watching. Video of the incident quickly spread and launched worldwide protests sparking what could be called the largest civil rights movement since the 1960s.
Floyd’s death led to nationwide demands for drastic police reform. Locally, Fort Worth saw over a month’s worth of protests. Although Floyd’s death happened almost 1,000 miles away, the systemic issues of racial injustice hit close to home. Flashbacks to the controversial arrest of Jaqueline Craig in 2016 and the police shooting of Atatiana Jefferson in 2019 reminded us that Fort Worth is far from immune to these problems in our own police department.
But the Fort Worth Police Department does not deny that there is work to be done. In 2016, when a video of Craig being wrestled to the ground by a white FWPD officer for what would otherwise be a routine call went viral, the City of Fort Worth responded to the national outrage by creating a community-led Race and Culture Task Force to improve racial disparities in Fort Worth. Jefferson’s wrongful death in 2019, shot in her home playing video games with her nephew by a white officer responding to a welfare check from a concerned neighbor, spurred an expert review panel to examine the police department which released a report in July.
“I think we can demonstrate that, in comparison to most cities, Fort Worth has been dealing with racial injustice in the police-community relations more transparently, more directly, and more effectively than most cities around the country,” assistant city manager Fernando Costa says. “We’ve been at it for a while — for good reason — and we have a long way to go to address these issues adequately, but I think we’ve made a good start.”
The current climate has cities across the country viewing their police departments through a magnifying glass, looking at how reforms can lead to a more equitable system. So how is Fort Worth doing? We asked city officials and community members to find out.
RACE AND CULTURE TASK FORCE Following six months of protests in response to Craig’s arrest, the City of Fort Worth created a 23-member Race and Culture Task Force to address racial inequalities in the areas of criminal justice, economic development, education, governance, health, housing, and transportation. The Task Force, made up of community leaders, issued a report in 2018 to city council with 22 recommendations.
City council approved the implementation of all recommendations, and progress has since been made on each of the 22. While each recommendation topic relates to the overall subject of racial disparities in Fort Worth, we followed up on the implementation of the three key criminal justice recommendations.
POLICE OVERSIGHT According to criminal justice committee chair Ty Stimpson, the task force recommendation that received the most attention was for civilian oversight of the police department. The report called for a civilian review board or an alternate oversight model to improve police-community relations.
As a result, the city established the Office of the Police Oversight Monitor. Kim Neal, former executive director of the Citizens Complaint Authority in Cincinnati, became Fort Worth’s first police oversight monitor in March and is assisted by deputy police monitor Denise Rodriguez. The police monitor’s role includes handling complaints, reviewing policies, and engaging community relations with the FWPD.
Neal says the new office has had its fair share of challenges, opening amidst the pandemic and protests, but is still collaborating with members of the community and the FWPD in surveys and roundtables to facilitate discussions and establish the role of the police monitor.
“We have to get down into the weeds and tackle the issues,” she says of her new role. “I’m not just putting all of this on the police department as it relates to how they deal with the community, but it’s also the community’s understanding of policing. It has to be a full-fledged engagement of both police and community so that both sides can understand exactly where the other side is coming from.”
FWPD chief Ed Kraus says he welcomes Neal’s expertise. “She’s got a good handle on the process to decide what oversight will look like,” Kraus says. “She’s getting a lot of community input. She’s reaching out to the department as well as different city leaders to see what they’re interested in.”
Whether or not there will be a civilian oversight board to work alongside the Police Oversight Monitor will be determined by city council members later this year.
“I think they can coexist if done correctly,” Stimpson says.
DIVERSITY The task force also suggested improving the diversity of the FWPD. They found that the department’s demographics did not proportionally match that of the community, especially in higher ranks and specialized units.
At the time of the report, there were no Black officers in specialized units such as SWAT, K-9, Criminal Intelligence, or Homicide. Hispanic and female officers were also disproportionately representative of the community.
“That is something we’ve struggled with for years,” Kraus says.
The task force gave measurable goals to meet by 2025 and suggested the department provide quarterly data. The department has since published a demographic report each quarter and has made some progress toward the goals set by the task force but several specialized units still lack representation.
Director of the Diversity and Inclusion Department Christina Brooks was hired in December to oversee the implementation of task force recommendations.
Kraus says the police department recently started a “Be The Change” campaign through social media platforms to inspire more diverse applicants to the force.
“In the last week of the application period, we got a lot more applications and a lot more that were from minority and female candidates,” he says.
CADET PROGRAM The final recommendation was to reinstate the cadet program, disbanded in 2009, to encourage high school and community college-aged minority recruitment. The cadet program launched earlier this year.
“We hired 20 [cadets] right off the bat, which has been the number that we committed to,” Kraus says. “They are part-time employment positions. We’re using them in different areas of the department to familiarize youngsters with the police department, with the role of not just the police officers but the other civilian support staff. Our hope is that they will want to transition into a permanent full-time position to make this a career.”
Other Efforts
The Race and Culture Task Force is not the FWPD’s stand-alone attempt to strengthen community relations and restore trust in the department.
Fort Worth is one of six pilot sites for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice through the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2015, the city was chosen to participate in the program that focused on increasing police legitimacy by “examining policies, reducing bias, enhancing procedural justice, and promoting racial reconciliation” according to the initiative's website.
The department’s also working to implement recommendations from the Expert Review Panel Status Report that stemmed from Jefferson’s shooting — much of which aligns with the Task Force’s recommendations on police monitoring and diversity.
FWPD also follows the Texas Police Chiefs Association's recommendations on best practices, but making significant change takes time, Krause says.
“Culture is something that you can’t turn on a dime,” he says. “The larger the organization, the harder it is to create new culture or new expectations for culture. We have a lot of work to do here in Fort Worth.”
Chief Kraus’ Retirement
Kraus was named FWPD chief in December 2019 after having served as interim chief since May, following the firing of chief Joel Fitzgerald.
There was no way to predict that Kraus’ time as chief would be significantly impacted by both the pandemic and social justice movements. While he was subject to scrutiny following Jefferson’s shooting and during protests, he also made national news for attempts at bridging the divide. A photo of Kraus kneeling and praying with protesters after Floyd’s death sent the message that he was invested in healing the community.
When Kraus announced his early retirement in July, many hoped that his replacement would foster the same commitment to reform and community relations.
“There's got to be a positive outlook on it,” Neal says of the next chief’s openness to reform. “The key is going to be collaboration with the community — how viable and adaptive and community-friendly your policies, procedures, and training are. It's always got to be about ensuring public safety and ensuring that community members' civil rights are not violated.”
Kraus says he will remain in his position until February while his replacement is found. The city hired an independent agency to assist in the nationwide search for Fort Worth’s next chief. The first round of candidate reviews is expected this month.
CCPD Vote
In July, at the same time that protesters were calling for the defunding of police, Fort Worth voters approved the renewal of the city’s Crime Control and Prevention District and the half-cent sales tax that funds it for the next 10 years.
In the special election, 65% of voters voted in favor of CCPD while 35% opposed — the largest opposition since the CCPD’s inception in 1995. Less than 7% of Fort Worth’s registered voters participated in the vote.
If the CCPD didn’t pass, Kraus says the FWPD would face serious cutbacks.
“I was looking at having to cut everything except officers, the vehicles for them to get around, and their protective equipment,” he says. “Everything else would be on the chopping block, and we'd have to prioritize to see what we keep and what we're unable to keep.”
But Kraus heard the call for funding realignment from the community. The city council-approved $86.5 million CCPD budget for 2021 provides for increased spending with community partners and an increase in the FWPD’s crisis intervention team.
The budget also allocates funds for creating a 10-member nonsworn, nonweapon-carrying civilian response team that will respond to low level calls.
“There's a nexus between what [protest] groups and the community have been calling for that aligns with what the police department wants to do,” Kraus says. “And when you get that kind of synergy, I think it's a win for [protest] groups and a win for the city.”
What Community Groups are Saying
Rebuilding trust in the wake of highly visible incidents nationally and within the FWPD is necessary and arduous. Community members, especially those most impacted in the Black community, remain skeptical of FWPD’s investment in reform.
“We haven't felt any of that change,” says CommUnity Frontline president Dante Williams. “None of that has trickled down to the people that are affected most. There are still things that happen. There may not be someone getting shot, but there are things that are happening daily.”
Williams, who’s participated with other members from his nonprofit in reform talks with FWPD, sees the new police monitor office as a step in the right direction but says that a community oversight board made up of non-city employees is still necessary.
“I think [Neal’s] doing the best that she can, given the parameters as she’s been given,” he says. “But there has to be a group of people that can come in, that don't have to fear their job being taken away from the city if they speak out against the law.”
CommUnity Frontline assistant to race relations and police oversight Joshua Rivers at one time wanted to join FWPD after graduating from Texas Wesleyan with a degree in criminal justice.
“I had to ask myself, ‘Is this an organization that wants me? Is this an organization that truly would value my perspective?’,” Rivers says. “And the answer that I got was not necessarily.”
Both Williams and Rivers say the next police chief must continue and build upon Kraus’ efforts to bring about change.
“I would hope that, moving forward in the next year, we find a person to use Chief Kraus’ example and let him be a precursor to the changes that the city needs,” Rivers says.
