FORT WORTH, Texas — Six years after calls began for stronger police oversight in Fort Worth, a plan for a citizen oversight board remains in limbo.
In 2016, a Fort Worth mother called police about a neighbor choking her son, but she and her daughters ended up arrested.
Video of the incident went viral, leading to the creation of a Race and Culture Task Force which recommended, among other things, the creation of a citizen oversight board for police.
“It showed the city of Fort Worth that we had somewhat of a racial issue,” councilman Chris Nettles, who has pushed and campaigned for the board, said. “This has to happen. It has to happen, and I have been the loudest voice, the strongest voice that has pushed for this oversight board.”
In January 2020, two years after the task force’s recommendation of a board, the city instead hired Kim Neal, a police monitor, to oversee policies and help handle complaints independently.
“Some areas of the city are much more appreciative of police and they appreciate what they do, and they have a different stance on policing. They have a different perception of policing,” Neal said. “But in other areas of the city, I think folks feel they are being policed more than served by the police.”
Neal’s current focus is creating a voluntary mediation program for police and the community to sit down and discuss encounters.
“It’s something that I strongly believe in,” she said. “Some of my peers across the nation have done it and it has been a great success.”
Mayor Mattie Parker and Chief Neil Noakes declined to talk about the board with WFAA, but last July, Noakes said he didn’t see it as a benefit to the city.
“When we look across the country, what we’ve been seeing, I’ll be quite honest, I haven’t seen a lot of positive results,” Noakes said in 2021. “I don’t know what a positive civilian oversight board would look like here in Fort Worth."
“Civilian review boards have been very successful,” Neal said. “I think it’s important that our community members have that voice. I don’t ever think it’s ineffective. I think that we just continue to make it as sustainable as possible.”
“If we don’t have him working alongside us to make sure we can get the best out of this board, then we still fail as a city,” Nettles said.
Neal brought a plan for a board to council last September, but Nettles felt it didn’t go far enough, while other council members pushed back on ideas like people with a felony record serving on the board.
“I didn’t feel like it was strong enough to really make a difference,” Nettles said. “We don’t want a washed up, a washed down, a washed overboard.”
Since then, Neal says she’s worked with groups to change the plan including ensuring representation from LGBTQ and mental health communities and more.
The strength of trust and the relationship between Fort Worth police and communities of color in the city is again in focus as the trial of former officer Aaron Dean, accused of murdering Atatiana Jefferson in her own home, has been repeatedly delayed with no clear start date currently.
"This shouldn’t be a partisan issue," Nettles said. “This shouldn’t be Republican, Democratic, Independent. It should be what is best for the community.”
Years after the 2016 Fort Worth arrest went viral and as the city watches a long-awaited trial, its leaders will decide if it can support for police while cultivating community trust.