Proposal that would put more Fort Worth police at parks met with resistance

The Fort Worth Park and Recreation Department wants to start a new program that would put off-duty police officers at parks across the city.

Buddy Calzada, Public Information Officer for Fort Worth Police, said the department is considering the request, along with other proposals, for the Crime Control and Prevention District funds.

CCPD funds are provided by a half-cent sales tax and are pegged for crime reduction strategies.

Calzada said Park & Rec is requesting $458,000 for their prevention program, which would tackle park ordinance violations like off-road cars damaging parks, littering, parking control, and vendor violations. It would also address criminal violations, according to a Park presentation, like vandalism, narcotics usage, and car-racing/burning out.

“This would cover any public disturbance or nuisance, even up to violent crimes," Calzada said. "When you have officers in a specific area, people tend to do violent crimes elsewhere, and we would like that elsewhere to not be in the city of Fort Worth."

He said the request is not a result of any increase in crime trends.

Calzada said officers wouldn't be at each of the city's 300 parks but would cover all the city's park districts.

According to Park's presentation, patrol routes would be based on crime data and violation trends, and the prevention program would utilize 4,992 overtime hours.

Calzada explained that off-duty officers would still be in uniform.

“With all of our off-duty officers in the City of Fort Worth, they are uniformed, they do have their radio, they are actually on a sheet-- and for us in police terms that means dispatch knows that they’re at this location. If they need to call out for any reason or need any resources, we can immediately provide it to that officer," he said.

Not everyone is on board with the proposal, though.

“My knee-jerk response was, we don’t need more money for policing, we need more policing for our money," said Pastor Kyev Tatum, who also sits on the Park & Recreation Advisory Board.

He said the idea first came to them from a group who had concerns about their own park, Tandy Hills. He didn't know it was being proposed as a city-wide program.

“Bringing the police in might control the situation but it doesn’t solve the problem," Tatum said.

He thinks the CCPD funds should go toward neighborhood programs, not more police hours.

For example, Tatum said they could tap the Texas Buffalo Soldiers, a group of black men first formed after the Civil War, who served during peacetime in different roles, including becoming America's first park rangers.

“The Buffalo Soldiers, you know, can take many of these kids-- or many of these young people, train them and prepare them, and they can patrol their own parks," Tatum said. “Take that half-million dollars and put it into people and the communities and let the people patrol their communities, and watch the communities grow up better."

Calzada said there are benefits to having officers in the program.

“The advantage that we have is that the safety in that park, we know how that individual is trained, we know the resources that they have, and that’s through the Fort Worth Police Department," he said. “When you have a highly trained officer that’s well-disciplined, you’re going to get great results.”

But Tatum worries about excessive force and racial profiling and insists there may be a better solution.

“Policing is a solution. It’s not the only solution. And we must have a robust discussion about other solutions," Tatum said.