After ‘puzzling’ spike in homicides, Fort Worth leaders look to new police chief
Cody Scott’s father is grateful to God for giving him one last chance to talk to his son.
As their cars pulled up alongside each other in traffic on Monday, Aug. 18, they rolled their windows down. Jeffrey Scott told Cody he was returning from Oklahoma and that he’d see him at the house later.
Within the hour, Cody Scott was shot multiple times as he drove. The 32-year-old father died the next day in the intensive care unit at John Peter Smith Hospital, one of 57 people to be killed in homicides in Fort Worth through mid-September of this year.
Cody Scott’s killing is part of a worrisome trend: According to the city’s quarterly crime report for April through June, there were 43 homicides in the first half of 2025, up from 31 during the first six months of the previous year. However, despite that 39% increase in homicides, overall crimes tracked in the report decreased 13% in the first half of this year, and crimes against persons — including other violent crimes like assaults and sex offenses — are down 12%.
The uptick in homicides comes as the Fort Worth Police Department is in a period of transition. Former Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia has been hired to lead the department, replacing Chief Neil Noakes, who retired in May. Garcia’s first day of work was Wednesday, Sept. 17.
While the rise in homicides may seem alarming, Interim Chief Robert Alldredge told the Star-Telegram in an August interview, the statistic doesn’t accurately reflect the department’s “robust” violent crime strategy. He pointed out that the department has an 83% clearance rate for homicides, which means offenders are being caught “pretty quickly” after the crimes.
A 29-year-old local country singer has been charged with murder in connection with Cody Scott’s death.
Alldredge said there’s no one factor to point the finger at when discussing why homicides increase. He also noted that the number of homicides is trending lower than 2020-2022, when there were more than 100 killings per year.
“There’s no defining characteristic that we’d go, ‘OK, this is what’s causing the increase,’” Alldredge said. “For us, it’s probably just as puzzling as anyone else out there.”
Most of the 2025 spike occurred in the first three months of the year, with 20 homicides in January through March, compared to nine during the first quarter of 2024. Five people were killed on one Sunday in June in four unrelated shootings.
Through June, 29 of the 43 total homicides were shootings. In the cases with known motives, 10 were domestic violence, 14 stemmed from arguments or fights, and five were robberies, according to the reports.
Fort Worth police strategy to reduce violent crime
The city’s violent crime strategy, #FortWorthSafe, was introduced in 2021 by then-Chief Noakes. It involves reviewing data and surveillance video from the city’s 824 police reporting areas for common factors contributing to crime.
“Maybe there’s a drug house, maybe there’s a game room, maybe there’s a convenience store that everybody kind of goes to,” Alldredge said. “Or maybe there’s just blight in the neighborhood, maybe it’s a food desert.”
The more surgical approach allows the department to address crime and its root causes without inundating communities with officers. Prior to this strategy, “you couldn’t differentiate good from bad, and somebody trying to work or go home, were getting caught up … and it really was unfair to them,” Alldredge said.
He said the department also assigns neighborhood police officers who check in with residents to make sure what police are doing is working.
Council member Chris Nettles agrees that community policing is the right approach, but said that he feels the neighborhood police officers change too quickly.
Nettles represents District 8, which includes neighborhoods on the east side and in far south Fort Worth. Some neighborhoods, such as Morningside and the Historic Southside, have been among the hardest hit by the spike in homicides. The councilman said if officers aren’t in his community for long, residents don’t have a chance to get to know them.
“We’re investing in our police department, but I think some of the community is feeling that they’re not getting their tax dollars used appropriately,” Nettles said.
Prior to taking a job in the chief’s office, public information officer Tracy Carter was a neighborhood police officer in the Como neighborhood for five years.
Carter described the job of a neighborhood police officer, or NPO, as like being the “mayor” of a particular beat, meaning that officer is responsible for handling long-term issues in their area.
Oftentimes, NPOs get promoted out of their beat as part of the regular motions of a career in law enforcement, he said. Therefore, there’s not really a specific timeframe on transitions between officers.
Building relationships between community and police
Community members have been key to the department’s efforts to reduce crime overall, Alldredge said.
The city saw an overall drop in offenses reported in the police department’s jurisdiction, according to the quarterly crime report. The total number of reported crimes fell to 12,392 in the second quarter, compared to 14,456 during the same period last year.
“To get everybody involved and engaged, to call us and tell us when things are happening, that’s what makes things happen,” Alldredge said. “Those relationships, they’re invaluable because historically, some of those communities would never call us, but now we have such great partnerships.”
Alldredge said the department is still repairing community relationships.
“There’s still some communities where there is that mistrust, and so that’s where we have to work twice as hard to gain that trust and to close that gap,” Alldredge said.
Nettles said he is looking to Garcia to improve the department.
“I think that Eddie Garcia has a resume that presents himself or positions himself to be an outstanding police chief,” Nettles said. “Now the gloves come off, and we actually see the work happen. … And so he would need to put his ears to the ground and hear exactly what needs to be done.”
“If numbers mean anything, it means that you have to show up,” Nettles said. “My commitment to the chief is when things come up, I will bring it to him.”
The councilman, himself a minister, isn’t alone in the fight, or in his opinions: Pastor Kyev Tatum is at the helm of New Mount Rose Church, which is located in District 8.
Tatum also heads up the Ministers Justice Coalition, described on its website as “committed to advocating and fighting for equality, equity and justice in communities of color.”
The coalition of ministers meets weekly to come up with solutions for problems their communities are facing, Tatum said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the coalition distributed up to $25 million worth of personal protective equipment, vaccines and masks without a dime of local assistance, Tatum said. Through a partnership with the Midwest Food Bank, the coalition distributes 12,000 pounds of food monthly.
The group of community leaders has recently shifted gears to address impending challenges brought on by Fort Worth ISD’s decision to close two schools in the church’s neighborhood, Tatum said.
“We may not have the majority, but God has given us a voice, and we try to use our voice to help ourselves,” the minister said.
Tatum said that he’s open to meeting and working with Garcia.
Together, Nettles and Tatum stressed that there’s more to know about their community than the numbers in the quarterly crime report.
“District 8 is not a bad part of town,” Nettles said. “It has culture, and it’s a community that loves Fort Worth. We love to be here, we want to stay here.”
Tatum, who was born in the area of Fort Worth he now fights so hard for, tells a story of a community that won’t be silenced easily.
“The Morningside community is one of the most resilient communities you’d ever want to be in,” Tatum said. “In spite of the trauma, in spite of the depression and the anxiety, in spite of the health crisis, in spite of all that, one thing is certain: we have love for each other.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 2:24 PM.
