Fort Worth

Fort Worth City and Community Leaders Meet on Action Plan to Improve Race Relations

The city of Fort Worth is turning to some old ideas to resolve ongoing problems with race relations. City and community leaders met Monday night to talk about recommendations a group of pastors made back in 2014.

It's called the 3-E action plan. That stands for "Equity and Equality for Everyone," and it was developed under the previous police chief to improve relations with the public.

It's a list of 21 action items, ranging from the use of police body cameras, to recruiting more minority officers and having the chief meet with small neighborhood groups. The plan's authors say the city hasn't followed through on enough of the steps.

"All is not well in Fort Worth," said Pastor Michael Bell, spokesperson for the Tarrant County Local Organizing Committee and one of the 3-E authors.

Bell always speaks his mind, from the pulpit of Greater St. Stephens Baptist Church to the thorny topic of race relations.

"We're in the midst of a very tense time in Fort Worth, racially. Things have gotten worse," Bell said.

He believes it would be a different story if the city had followed through on a series of steps in the 2014 3-E plan.

"Ministers Against Crime, the chief is supposed to restore them, and that did not happen," Bell said, reading from the list of recommendations. "Direct communication to increase the effectiveness of decisions and information between each other, did not occur."

Bell was one of the original authors of the plan that came about because of discrimination complaints from minority officers under a past police chief.

Bell says that following the 3-E steps would strengthen ties to keep incidents like the Jacqueline Craig viral video arrest from mushrooming, and turn community activists from adversaries to allies.

"We're there to help the police department to build a better relationship with the community, but none of that has happened," Bell said.

Now, city leaders are dusting off those 3-E plans to show the public where they have made progress, for instance in undergoing an outside use of force analysis.

"I just don't think we did a good job communicating that," said Assistant City Manager Valerie Washington.

They're adding it to the mix of the newly formed race and culture task force to make sure everyone is on the same page for the next steps in measurable progress.

"We don't want to be a task force that doesn't do anything. We want to put meat on the bone," Washington said. "Really double check that things the police department says that they've done that they've actually gone on to do them."

City leaders have been meeting with the pastors over the past several months, clarifying what they need and setting new goals.

In one big change, the city is starting a new policy review board for community activists to meet regularly with the chief to go over any concerns and be more transparent and accountable to the public.

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