A year after shooting, policing progresses but Fort Worth has ‘miles to go,’ mayor says
A sharpened Fort Worth Police Department effort to de-escalate officer-civilian encounters and train officers who see a procedure violation, particularly on force use, to intervene.
An outside expert panel reviewing Fort Worth Police Department operations that will offer its final conclusions before the end of the year.
A police monitor who, after six months in the job, is assessing law enforcement patterns in the city.
These are among the ways in which Fort Worth officials say policing has changed in the city since the shooting death one year ago of Atatiana Jefferson, whom a police officer fired on through a window. She had been babysitting her 8-year-old nephew at her mother’s house in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue when she heard noise outside.
Thinking there was a prowler in the yard, Jefferson grabbed her gun, looked out of a bedroom window as she held it and was shot by a police officer seconds later, according to the nephew’s account that is described in an affidavit supporting an arrest warrant for the officer.
A neighbor had called the police because he became worried after seeing doors of the home open.
Jefferson, who was 28 and Black, was shot by Aaron Dean, a 35-year-old white officer who resigned and was indicted on a murder charge.
Fort Worth police Deputy Chief Neil Noakes, who heads the patrol bureau’s south command, said department training now makes clear that novice officers may need to physically push off veteran colleagues who are using excessive force.
Noakes, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and other city leaders on Thursday night attended a roundtable event at Texas Wesleyan University “to discuss progress underway, changes made and the road ahead” after Jefferson’s death.
“There’s a culture in law enforcement where people who are newer to the department don’t feel like they can step up and take action when necessary,” Noakes said. “We have to make sure they understand not only is it a right for them to do that, it’s a responsibility for them to do that. They have to.”
In 2019, Jefferson was the last of seven people who Fort Worth police officers shot. She and five others died. In 2020, Fort Worth police have shot one person, who survived. A white, 40-year-old officer shot a white, 59-year-old civilian who the police department said pointed a gun at the officer at the time he was shot.
“I promised a year ago that she would not be forgotten and that her tragic death would propel change in Fort Worth,” Price said of Jefferson, according to video of the meeting. The mayor said that the first steps had been taken, “but there are miles and miles to go.”
“I don’t tell you this to be defensive, but I do want you to know there is hard work going on,” Price said. “And it started long ago, but it really ramped up after we lost Atatiana. The community members should hear us that we are listening to you. You told us what you wanted and we are working toward that.”
Noakes said the department has improved its procedures and training to require that officers try to de-escalate a situation before using excessive force and practice how to respond to such a scenario.
“When officers make the scene, if they have to use force, they’re required to explain what de-escalation techniques they used to prevent that force from happening in the first place,” Noakes said at Thursday’s meeting.
The panel of national experts who spent months reviewing the department released its preliminary findings on July 31.
The panel commended the department’s commanders for creating policies and practices that focus on de-escalation tactics, but found that those policies are not uniformly followed or enforced.
The panel said it found examples of policies that were not being enforced in the department, including failure to de-escalate or conduct that actually escalated a confrontation and failure to wait for back-up or other tactical decisions that placed officers at heightened risk or that created the need to use force.
The panel is continuing to review police documents, conduct interviews and analyze data.
Racial, economic and social injustices that have for years stirred in Fort Worth erupted one year ago, City Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray said.
“There’s been an undercurrent that has been rumbling and rolling through this city. And it didn’t just start. What blew the lid off it, what literally blew the lid off of it, was the death of Atatiana Jefferson.”
On Thursday night, Jefferson’s sister Ashley Carr thanked people who have supported a nonprofit organization that she and others are developing to connect children in the southside of Fort Worth to science and math education opportunities.
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
