Police will need your help

With summer already beaming down on us, Fort Worth is always dealing with a different unwelcome wave: one of crime.

In the first three months of 2017, the number of homicides increased 69 percent. Sex offenses and aggravated assault also increased.

That’s an alarming jump in only three months, and all before summer, which almost always brings with it a higher crime rate.

In response police quickly assembled a Violent Crime Task Force to combat the increase.

“We needed to do something, so we moved quickly,” Assistant Chief Kenneth Dean told council members at a meeting last week.

The task force deployed around 70 officers in high-crime areas during the night, working on lowering homicides, sex offenses and aggravated assault.

The police also have strategies to prevent domestic violence from turning into a homicide.

An increase in crime is never good, and comes after Fort Worth’s long history of success in lowering the crime rate.

It is heartening to see police taking quick action, but a steady, long-lasting approach will be needed to keep crime down.

Police will need our help as they face a difficult summer.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Police will need your help."