Tensions flare between Fort Worth city council and police union over armored vehicle
Tensions flared on social media after the Fort Worth City Council voted 5-3-1 Tuesday to accept a federal grant to purchase an armored vehicle for the Fort Worth Police Department.
District 8 council member Chris Nettles said Tuesday the city already has two of these vehicles and could use its resources elsewhere.
But Fort Worth Police Officer’s Association president Manny Ramirez wrote in a statement Wednesday the vehicles are needed to keep officers safe.
Ramirez, who is running for the Rrecinct 4 Tarrant County commissioner seat, criticized Nettles, District 9 council member Elizabeth Beck and District 6 council member Jared Williams for voting against the purchase.
According to a city report, the police department uses these vehicles to “transport personnel and equipment to incidents and other situations for impending life-threatening conditions.”
Examples it listed included, “hazardous materials exposures, explosives, mass gatherings, mass casualty incidents, barricaded persons, counter drug activities, and man-made or natural disasters.”
The city previously purchased two of these vehicles using federal grant funding through the Urban Areas Security Initiative Program. This program provides grants for law enforcement agencies to buy new equipment to, “enhance regional preparedness and capabilities in designated high-threat, high-density areas.”
Fort Worth’s new vehicle, called a Bearcat would be purchased from Massachusetts-based Lenco Industries for $368,236. The purchase would be funded with federal tax dollars.
District 8 council member Chris Nettles stressed his support for the Fort Worth Police Department Tuesday despite his opposition to the purchase.
He argued the city could use its resources in more constructive ways that improve community-police relations.
Mayor Mattie Parker reminded residents that the funding would come from the federal government rather than the city.
Ramirez highlighted this point in his letter calling out the three council members. He wrote these vehicles help rapidly deploy officers in dangerous hostage situations and pointed to the Colleyville synagogue standoff in January.
Beck fired back at Ramirez’s letter writing in a post on Twitter that his union has never engaged with her office to address its members’ needs.
“Maybe do the job your membership is paying for before accusing people of being anti-police,” she tweeted.
She left the door open for conversation, however, later tweeting, “I would welcome a conversation about supporting our officers to make their jobs easier and our city safer.”
District 4 council member Cary Moon said at Tuesday’s council meeting that Fort Worth supports the police. He pointed to the two-to-one margin in the July 2020 vote to reauthorize the half-cent sales tax that funds the Crime Control and Prevention District as evidence for that community support.
He also pointed the city’s ban on police choke holds, the addition of a diversity department, and the March 2020 hiring of police monitor Kim Neal as examples of the city’s efforts to improve police community relations.
Nettles argued Tuesday that the city still hasn’t done enough and could do more to improve the police’s relationship with the community.
“However, I do believe that we are going to get there eventually,” Nettles said.
Neal’s office is still working with the city to establish a community oversight board to monitor allegations of police misconduct. This was the first recommendation of the 2018 Race and Culture Task Force as a way to improve police-community relations.
Neal’s office set a goal in its December 2021 newsletter to establish a formal mandate to increase transparency between her office and Fort Worth police sometime this year.
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 12:24 PM.
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