FORT WORTH, Texas — The City of Fort Worth announced Tuesday the city's inaugural police monitor would be leaving her position in late November.
Kim Neal, the director of the city's Office of the Police Oversight Monitor, will be leaving to set up a similar program in Virginia, the city stated.
She has been with the city of Fort Worth since early 2020, leading efforts to finalize the model used for the independent monitoring of the city's police department.
“We appreciate Kim Neal’s vast experience and insight that led to developing Fort Worth’s program for independent review of the police department in order to increase trust between the community and the department,” Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke said. “We plan to recruit another person with similar knowledge and experience as we move forward to implement best practices for independent review of police.”
Neal was previously the executive director for the Cincinnati-based Citizens Complaint Authority, an independent law enforcement agency, and held public sector senior-level positions prior to that in several major cities in the areas of policy, employment, compliance, ethics, higher education, privacy and information disclosure.
Fort Worth City Councilmember Chris Nettles wrote a proposal for a Community Police Oversight and Accountability Board, stating the board should provide input, guidance and recommendations to the Chief of Police and the police oversight monitor for developing policies, practices and procedures in the police department.
The board would be voluntary, he said, and would also go to police department training, audit training, and have quarterly meetings. It would be made up of up to 15 board members. Some other cities like Dallas and Austin already have boards like this, he added.
For critical incidents, the police department's Internal Affairs division would submit an administrative case to the board for review at the same time it's submitted to the chain of command, and the board would meet with the Chief of Police to discuss the investigation and make a disciplinary recommendation. But the final decision on discipline would remain with the Chief of Police.