Community, city, police leaders plan how to reduce rising gun violence in Fort Worth
Donnell Ballard has been taking action to address concerns in his Fort Worth community most of his life. In 2020, he helped organize and lead protests against police brutality and racial injustice in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Now, the leader of the social justice advocacy group United My Justice has a new worry: an increase in shootings in Fort Worth communities.
“Gun violence is one of our biggest concerns in Fort Worth right now,” Ballard told the Star-Telegram.
On July 9, the same week a shooting injured eight people in the Como neighborhood, Ballard and Nikki Pugh, vice president of United My Justice, met with Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker to discuss the issue. The original plan for the meeting was to touch on the topic of gun violence in Fort Worth communities and talk about other concerns of United My Justice, like police reform, youth programs and a possible city-wide youth conference.
Instead, Ballard said, the three of them all felt the most immediate concern to discuss was the rise in gun violence plaguing Fort Worth neighborhoods.
Parker and Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes did not provide statistics, but both said the city has seen an increase in the rate of gun crimes, and something has to be done about it as soon as possible.
“Over the last year, our Police Department has unfortunately noted a definite increase in several categories of violent crime in Fort Worth, which includes gun violence,” Parker said in an email interview with the Star-Telegram. “We know that we aren’t the only big city seeing this troubling trend though; 63 of the 66 largest police jurisdictions in the U.S. are experiencing an uptick in violent crime.”
In the first quarter of this year, homicides in Fort Worth increased by 8.3%, with 26 killings compared to 24 in the first quarter of 2020, according to a department report. Twenty-three of the homicides involved guns. There also was a nearly 15% increase in aggravated assault cases, from 664 to 763. A report for the second quarter of 2021, which ended in June, was not yet available. In 2020, Fort Worth recorded 112 homicides, the most in the city in 26 years.
What’s already being done about gun violence
One way Fort Worth is trying to reverse the trend of increased shootings in the city is the Fort Worth Safe initiative. The program aims to reduce gun violence by identifying the areas in which it is most prevalent and strategically focusing resources in those areas.
Gang activity is one of the major areas police are giving attention in the initiative to reduce violent crime in the city.
Since the initiative was launched May 10, police have made 116 arrests, filed 87 new felony charges and arrested 35 gang members.
They’ve also confiscated 64 weapons, according to data released by police, from handguns to rifles.
They’re also taking steps to make sure guns aren’t purchased illegally within the city. During a gun show at the Will Rogers Convention Center in early June, police made multiple arrests and seized guns from people trying to buy or sell firearms illegally.
The initiative has enforcement and community outreach components, “which will address deficiencies in communities that increase the likelihood of violent crime occurring,” Noakes said in an email interview with the Star-Telegram.
In addition to the gang unit focusing efforts on known gang members and those with prior gun arrests, enhancing enforcement on game rooms in areas identified as hot spots for violent crime, and tracking trends with “an intelligence-led approach” through the Real-Time Crime Center, police are introducing a daytime rotation of neighborhood officers to assist with community policing, according to the Fort Worth Safe website.
These officers will engage with business owners and community members and give special attention to interacting with younger community members to educate about the Fort Worth Safe initiative and help community members feel more comfortable giving input.
Ballard, the United My Justice president, said after meetings with Parker and Noakes he feels confident in their desire, and their ability, to address gun violence in the city. They’re both good listeners and want to hear what the community has to say, he said.
What else can be done
Ballard said that while police and the city are taking a genuine interest in solving the problem of gun violence in Fort Worth, the problems have been spurred on by a lack of action from both communities and local government.
One thing Ballard said residents can do to help address gun violence is to assist in creating community programs, especially those geared toward teens and young adults.
Ballard said he believes young people are disproportionately involved in the uptick in gun violence in Fort Worth and creating programs to keep them busy will go a long way. He said he believes that, as his mother used to tell him all the time, idle hands do the devil’s work.
Jobs for youth in the city old enough to work would do a lot to keep them busy, Ballard said. Employment would give them something to be proud of and help keep them away from bad influences they might otherwise encounter, he said.
Good male role models are also a necessity, Ballard said. So many kids, teens and young adults today don’t have strong male role models, and he thinks implementing mentorship programs and pushing for Big Brother/Big Sister programs in communities will have a notable impact on gun violence rates.
Other, more bespoke initiatives focused in individual communities are also necessary, Ballard said. He recalled one program in the 1990s he worked with, where an apartment complex that had problems with robberies and break-ins gave him an apartment and resources to get young people off the streets when they weren’t in school.
They had mentorship opportunities, activities and accountability, encouraging members of the program to get good grades in school and find and hold down a job.
More specific programs could also help. Communities in which crimes are happening late at night might introduce a late night basketball league for teens and young adults, he said, recalling a midnight basketball program he ran at one point.
And communities don’t have to wait for government to raise money, plan and execute these programs. Local fundraising, volunteering and creating community groups to address these needs can go a long way. The city may need help from the community to raise the money necessary for these programs, Ballard said.
Police involvement will also be necessary in these efforts, Ballard said, but because of distrust of law enforcement in many minority communities that may be difficult.
Ballard said efforts for community policing need to be carefully coordinated and watched. Input from community leaders needs to be taken seriously and police leadership needs to make sure the officers they are introducing into these communities are “the good guys,” Ballard said.
“The community and the police will have to work together, especially for Black communities,” Ballard said. “There are bad officers everywhere, bad people everywhere, but there are a lot of good officers, too.”
Ballard said police leaders need to make sure the officers they are introducing into communities are well-trained and have the right attitudes and personalities to interact with communities that may have had bad experiences with law enforcement and might be less than welcoming, at least at the beginning.
Making sure the community has positive interactions with police is an absolute necessity, Ballard said. If officers with the wrong attitude or poor training go into communities that already lack trust, the divide will only grow larger.
Faith in leaders
But that doesn’t mean the city isn’t capable of making strong strides in efforts to correct gun violence trends, Ballard said.
He has a lot of faith in the still-new leadership in Fort Worth. A younger mayor and an innovative police chief give the city more opportunity to think outside traditional methods for curbing crime and violence in communities, he said.
“This is an opportunity for Fort Worth to get it together,” Ballard said.
He encourages community members with concerns or ideas on how best to address those concerns to reach out to him and other non-government community leaders, but also to contact Parker and Noakes. They’re talented listeners, he said, and he feels they take the concerns, advice and ideas of their neighbors seriously.
“I’m proud of the changes I know are about to take place,” Ballard said. “We know not all will be perfect overnight. It will take time, going step by step.”
But having faith in leaders doesn’t mean sitting back, being uninvolved and waiting for elected and appointed officials to fix the problems. There still needs to be accountability, and there still needs to be community interest and assistance in solving problems, he said.
Ballard said that outrage at gun violence in the city is justified, but asked the community to do everything they can to be understanding of the challenges faced by police and the city, to have patience, to stay informed of progress or setbacks and to make sure they have continuous communication with leaders in government and in their communities.
“This isn’t just a job for the mayor or the chief of police,” Ballard said. “This has to be a community effort.”