Fort Worth panel recommends investing in mental health resources for residents, police
In the wake of significant and persistent civil unrest locally and nationwide, a group appointed by Fort Worth officials to study police policy rolled out some recommendations designed to improve police interactions and outcomes.
One emphasis is on responding appropriately to mental health issues during police interactions in the community and during evaluations of police officers. Other recommendations and changes being implemented relate to use-of-force policies and the investigation of civilian complaints.
A preliminary report on the panel’s recommendations was released just minutes after a meeting between members of the Fort Worth Police Department Expert Review Panel and community stakeholders concluded on Friday.
The panel’s findings concluded that:
▪ Adherence to using force-avoidance and de-escalation tactics is uneven and those tactics need to be applied consistently to establish trust between the police department and community members. The uneven application of force also erodes the department’s ability to forge partnerships that would enhance public safety efforts.
▪ The department has a non-functioning crisis intervention service, without the adequate infrastructure to link those who are homeless and/or substance abusers to service providers.
▪ The Department’s Internal Affairs and other accountability systems are fractured and spread across multiple chains of command, making it difficult to ensure discipline is applied in a consistent manner.
▪ The department has effective data collection systems, comprehensive policies, and leadership who can lead through evidence-based best practices. But in many cases, the data collected, especially that data regarding officer conduct, is not effectively used to identify strengths and weaknesses in training, supervision, policy, tactics, or accountability.
▪ Fort Worth must make efforts to maximize important investments the city has made in policy development, training, technology, and facilities.
Catalysts
These recommendations follow the death of Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman who was shot and killed on Oct. 12 by a Fort Worth police officer as she stood in front of a darkened window inside her mother’s house.
A neighbor had called police because doors at the house were open, and officers approached through the back yard and did not identify themselves, the department has said. Jefferson heard a noise outside her window, rose from playing video games with her nephew, retrieved her gun from her purse, and then walked to the rear of the house to determine what was causing the noise, according to an arrest warrant affidavit charging the officer who shot her with murder.
More recently, a police officer shot a man inside a Fort Worth motel room this week three seconds after the officer walked through its door, according to body-camera video of a portion of the encounter the city’s police department released Thursday.
The man was shot when he pointed a gun at the Fort Worth officer, the department has said. He left a suicide note earlier in the day and had a pistol, the officer and at least two others who went to the motel about 2 p.m. Tuesday were told. He was in critical condition after the shooting.
Alex del Carmen, a panel leader and a nationally recognized criminologist, said one refrain he heard from stakeholders attending Friday’s meeting was the perception that city administrators would fail to put the information gathered by the experts into practice.
“People wanted to make sure this was not just one more box that needed to be checked,” del Carmen said. “People were saying that they wanted the study to continue and they wanted something to be done.”
Fort Worth attorney Leon Reed, who participated in the virtual meeting, echoed those concerns.
“It’s like getting one of those scientific studies that says water is wet,” Reed said. “Fort Worth is good for that. We have all this good information, but now what are you going to do with it? We produce all this good information and it just sits on the shelf. And I’m tired of that.”
What the city should do
According to report, the final phase of an early warning system that will help identify officers who may be a risk for misconduct is being implemented.
The program is designed to identify employees who may be facing professional or personal difficulties that are affecting their work performance and who may need some form of support, guidance or assistance. The overall objective is to intervene early to avoid any negative conduct, the report said.
The panel also recommended expanding and increasing the investment in the department’s mental health crisis intervention team. The team partners with non-law enforcement mental health personnel to provide services to mental health consumers, according to the report.
“The Department currently has a six-person Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) that often operates with fewer positions due to promotions or vacancies,” the report said. “The members of the team generally work from nine to five on weekdays, although they are available to assist officers on off hours by telephone. Typically, crisis intervention officers are not called to the scene involving a person in crisis. Instead, they intervene following the interaction between the person and the responding officer.”
The Fort Worth Police Department is also working to identify funding to provide mental health peace officer training and certification to every eligible officer. The department is researching other agencies nationwide, evaluating how to most effectively divert non-police calls directly to mental health providers, according to the report.
Other recommendations include streamlining the categorization of citizen complaints. Effective June 1, citizen complaints have been assigned a complaint number by Fort Worth Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit so those complaints can be accurately tracked, the report said.
The police department’s use-of-force policy and general orders will also be changed to enhance accountability and further clarify de-escalation and duty-to-intervene expectations. Efforts will be made to ensure that officers recognize that these are serious policy violations when not followed, a police department news release said.
Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus will provide a more complete briefing to the mayor and the Fort Worth City Council following the presentation by the panel at the city council work session on Tuesday.
Police officials have been working on the recommendations in collaboration with the panel of policy reform experts since December in an effort to improve the department, the release said.
“During this review, the panel committed to sharing significant observations and recommendations with the department as they identified them, allowing us to immediately address these items rather than wait for the panel’s interim report,” the release said. “Because of this partnership, our department has already adopted several of the identified recommendations and we are currently working on several others.
“Our department will continue to review the findings of the panel to ensure our policies reflect policing best practices and the expectations of our community,” the release said.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 1:17 PM.
