ARLINGTON, Texas — There is a serious debate happening right now on whether or not to dedicate more money to crime prevention in the City of Arlington.
One of the city's largest attended celebrations on record is being used by both sides of a conversation about reallocating sales tax money. When an estimated half million baseball fans converged on Arlington to celebrate the Rangers World Series win, the police had their hands full. But Arlington Mayor Jim Ross insists his officers were well prepared, even after gunfire erupted.
"You saw it here, and that's a credit to how things were put together and how safe people were kept," said Ross. "They have put together tremendous programs to protect our citizens for these massive events that we do here."
Chris CeBallos has been a police officer for nearly three decades and argues it's time for a "crime control and prevention district (CCPD)" in the city. He describes it as a designated area funded for reducing and stopping crime.
"I became a police officer 28 years ago," said CeBallos, "It's just something I've always wanted to do."
As President of the Arlington Municipal Patrolman's Association (AMPA), CeBallos has presented the idea to city council members and board members from AMPA. He wants voters to decide on shifting a half-cent sales tax to fund a crime control district.
"This is not a tax increase, it's a sales tax to help prevent the loss of life and destruction of property. It will help pay for all of our training and all of our equipment, police cars, uniforms, anything and everything we can use as police officers," said CeBallos,
Some of the things approved in the budget for the Arlington PD include increases for fleet maintenance, tasers, a clothing allowance for officers, funding for community programs, a language pay increase along with expanding the School Resource Officer program. APD did not get approved for things like more recruitment staff, some training resources, and digitization of the training center.
However, Mayor Ross believes reallocating even the smallest sales tax amount would not be good for other city departments.
"We're not in favor of depleting other portions of the city's money to enhance one particular department," said Ross.
CeBallos argues emergency responders have not held a joint mass casualty training exercise since hosting the 2011 Super Bowl. He shared that money put into a CCPD fund could help pay for more of that training as Arlington continues to host national events that draw tens of thousands to the entertainment district like the FIFA World Cup games.
As far as Mayor Ross is concerned APD is ready and landing big events along with how the city manages multiple events at the same time in the entertainment district is a testament. The World Cup Games will put Arlington in the worldwide spotlight again.
"FIFA would have never given us nine World Cup games more than any other city in North America. If they weren't confident that Arlington was able to deliver on public safety," said Ross.
Ceballos says he isn't done campaigning for a CCPD. Despite repeated presentations to the council, the AMPA is past the deadlines to push for the proposal to make the upcoming election in May. Ceballos told WFAA they will now focus on a goal for the November ballot and work to overcome hurdles.
"The biggest hurdle is just getting the information out there and getting our city council to push forward," said CeBallos.
CeBallos will spend the next few months raising awareness about the benefits of a CCPD, especially since he says many surrounding agencies have adopted the process.