Recommendation to create a police community advisory board in Fort Worth voted down by city council after heated debate
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – A recommendation from Fort Worth's Office of Police Oversight monitor to create a police community advisory board was voted down Tuesday night.
This comes after a heated debate at the city council meeting lasting over five hours.
This board would have been about a dozen or so members from the community in all council districts with the goal of holding the police department accountable.
"What we want is accountability and the reality is there is some officers that struggle with accountability they struggle with following the rules and the bylaws of being a police officer," said Fort Worth Councilman Chris Nettles.
Nettles pushed for this to be created to add a layer of transparency with the police department—and was backed by the office of police monitor.
However, it failed to get enough votes on council, 5-4—with the mayor casting the tie breaking vote.
"Our mayor of the City of Fort Worth has failed us in this vote," added Nettles.
"I am trusting my police chief and my friend, Chief Noakes has worked tirelessly both on command staff before under the leadership of Ed Kraus and today he's asking us for more time to create a real chiefs advisory board and he's even said, hold me accountable," said Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker during the council meeting.
Chief Noakes said this type of board in other cities—it further divided the community.
"My hope is that I've built enough trust in the community, all communities in Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Police Department to prove this can work," said Noakes at the meeting.
"This notion that we trust the police, well it's not about the chief, he's not going to be the chief forever, we're going to have a new chief eventually and he alone can't fix issues that within the department or that's national," added Nettles.
Some council members said they needed more time to see if an advisory board would be needed, meanwhile Nettles and others who supported this board—are disappointed.
"I feel like we have let down a community that really needs this type of accountability and trust," said Nettles.
As far as what's next, Nettles hopes this will come up for discussion in future city council meetings and welcomed amendments to this board to gain more council support.