With crime tax secure, Fort Worth leaders must follow through on policing changes
Fort Worth voters have declared that yes, hundreds of millions of dollars of sales-tax revenue should continue to flow to police and crime prevention programs in the next decade.
But it’s noteworthy that this election was closer than past renewals of the Crime Control and Prevention District. The victory was still quite comfortable, with 64 percent of the total vote. It’s clear that with the current national turmoil over police brutality, though, a large number of voters want a different kind of law enforcement, even if they don’t yet constitute a majority.
Leading up the election, officials such as Mayor Betsy Price and Police Chief Ed Kraus indicated they were listening and were on board for such change, as long as core police programs are funded. With the half-cent of sales tax revenue secure for 10 more years, they must now demonstrate that wasn’t just campaign rhetoric.
Price said in a written statement Tuesday night that she would push the City Council to “engage in a conversation about the governance structure” and spending choices. A conversation is a good start, but action must quickly follow.
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Before the vote, Price and Kraus pointed to programs such as crisis intervention for the mentally ill and perhaps a new program to ensure that those who need treatment are diverted to it rather than taken to jail when they commit low-level crimes.
They indicated they were behind improved training and recruiting of a more-diverse police force in a city that’s majority nonwhite. And they noted that the district funds have been used for important police accountability and outreach functions, such as dashboard and body cams and neighborhood police liaisons.
More broadly, the City Council has pledged to take up the demands of protesters seeking change after the killings of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and of Atatiana Jefferson, the Black Fort Worth woman killed when an officer fired on her in her own home.
It may not be that all of the activists’ policy prescriptions make sense. But a deep discussion of the city’s health, economic and law enforcement disparities — many tied to the lingering effects of racism — is overdue.
One quirk of the crime district is that the council has more direct influence over its money than the general city budget. The mayor and council make up the board that runs the crime district, while the city manager sets the budget (in accordance, of course, with what the council wants). Council members can ensure that real money flows to community programs and true crime prevention programs.
Fort Worth, like all governments, could face years of budgetary difficulties, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the economic collapse it wrought. Leaders have a tough task to fund priorities.
The crime-district vote drew tens of thousands more voters this year than when it was last renewed in 2014. While that’s mostly because of the pandemic-related delay that landed it on the ballot with party primary runoffs, it’s a much higher level of engagement in a local election than Fort Worth has had in a long time.
Whether that continues next year, when the mayor and City Council are on the ballot in May, remains to be seen. If Fort Worth residents want the crime tax money spent differently, or a change in law enforcement approach entirely, they can vote for that in 2021.
Voters saw to it that there will be no “defunding the police” in Fort Worth. That also means there’ll be no new revenue stream for mass transit or other priorities, unless the City Council requires that those needs be addressed in annual budgets. Voters should demand that it does so — and follows through on changes to police spending and policies.