Fort Worth Police Chief Lays Out Plan To Reduce Violent Crime
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Fort Worth police responded to four homicides in four weeks involving young people in the community.
Last year the city hit 118 homicides, a high not seen since the early 1990s.
To combat the rising crime, Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes laid out his vision to reduce crime.
"Violent crime is the number one issue for the Fort Worth Police Department. Violent crime is the number one issue for me," said Chief Noakes during a presentation in front of the Fort Worth City Council and Mayor Mattie Parker.
Chief Noakes said this comes down to two issues: police and partnerships.
"We need solid, professional, precise, data-driven intelligence led policing. We need officers who go out proactively in communities and address the violent actors there in communities," said Noakes.
Noakes also brought up the growing population of Fort Worth as more people move to the city, contributing to the higher number of crimes the city is seeing, especially when it comes to shooting and homicides.
One slide showed the increase in shootings in the city from 149 in 2006 to 388 in 2021.
When it comes to prevention, Noakes said certain types of guns need to be taken off the streets and a gang prevention officer needs to be in the gang unit.
Ministers Against Crime is a group in the city with the goal of reducing crime in Fort Worth.
Pastor Jack Crane said clergy needs to be a part of the solution, too.
"I think one of the things that pastors are going to have to do, we're going to have to make ourselves visual, we're going to have to be more proactive than reactive," he said.
Crane also said there needs to be more after school programs for youth to attend and police are just one part of stopping crime.
"It's going to take a whole city-wide effort to curb this crime that's going on in our city," he said.
