FORT WORTH, Texas — A group of Fort Worth residents is now helping the city's police department craft policy and review procedures, Chief Neil Noakes told council members Tuesday.
The Community Advisory Board currently consists of 14 members, with room for expansion. Noakes says he selected the panelists with community input and diversity in mind.
The committee has met three times already, Noakes said.
"When you bring a group of really intelligent people together, there's this IQ compounding that happens," the chief told WFAA. "They bring something to the table that we may not have; they have another area of expertise."
The panel will initially meet once each month to discuss crime prevention strategies, review critical incidents and procedures, and offer opinions on proposed policy. Noakes and two deputy chiefs will be the only police officers who regularly attend, he said.
Board members can also take civilian's complaints about officer misconduct and present them to the city-employed police watchdog.
Noakes pitched the Community Advisory Board soon after council rejected an independent community oversight board, which would've investigated misconduct and held accountable police. The chief lobbied against that panel, which would've included civilian members appointed by elected officials.
Fort Worth is the largest city in Texas without some kind of citizen-led police oversight board. A special task force on race and culture recommended Fort Worth city leaders establish such a committee in 2019.
"The need for a citizen's review board, I believe, may still be there," said Cory Session, a community activist who sat on the 2019 task force.
"However, at this point in time, there just are not enough votes with the Fort Worth City Council," he said.
The new Community Advisory Board does not entirely satisfy the task force's 2019 recommendation. The panel's meetings are not public. The police chief is ultimately responsible for selecting its members, not elected officials.
Some residents still won't be comfortable taking concerns to a city-employed monitor or a review board selected by the police chief, Session said.
Noakes and Session each say the chief's new Community Advisory Board does not preclude council from establishing a civilian oversight committee.
"Only time will tell" if the council should've established a civilian review board last year, Session added.
Noakes pointed to the recent release of edited body camera footage as proof his department is trying to be more transparent.
"I hope what people will do is look at what we've been doing, as far as being more transparent and being much more open," he said.
"We all want the same outcome," Noakes added. "We're all looking for the same goal, but maybe coming at it from different directions."
The 14 members comprising the Community Advisory Board are:
- Susan Garnett, My Health My Resources of Tarrant County
- Felipe Gutierrez, LGBTQ+ Advocate
- Lauren King, Tarrant County Homeless Coalition
- Annette Landeros, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Parish Lowery, Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church
- Kaleb Gonzalez, Young Adult representative
- Rodney McIntosh, Community Advocate and former gang member
- Lee Muhammed, Mosque #48
- David Saenz, Fort Worth ISD
- Ty Stimpson, Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce
- Estrus Tucker, Race & Culture Task Force
- Murali Vennam, Hindu Temple of Greater Fort Worth
- Estella Williams, NAACP
- Brent Carr, retired judge