In 2020, the murder of George Floyd sparked police reform movements across the United States. Even before Floyd's death, Fort Worth had been rocked by the death of Atatiana Jefferson in October of 2019 who was shot and killed by a police officer.

In 2020 — following the murder of Floyd — Fort Worth voters reapproved the Fort Worth CCPD, funded by a half-cent sales tax that funds at least 24% of the city police department's budget.

The CCPD was initially established in 1995 to combat local crime— record crime rates across the city in the late '80s and early '90s were the driving force of the CCPD — but over the last 25 years, it has become an integral part of city spending.

In the 2022 fiscal year, the Crime Control and Prevention District will supplement the police department’s $282 million budget with an additional $87 million.

But some residents question the role of the CCPD and its growth to $80 million of funding.

“Large portions of the CCPD budget are dedicated to militarized equipment and special response units,” said Pamela Young, lead criminal justice organizer for United Fort Worth. 

Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke said eliminating the CCPD would strip $80 million from the police department.

“If that money wanted to stay in the police budget, there would have to be cuts made in other services,” Cooke said.

With a population of just under 950,000, Fort Worth spills into Denton, Johnson, Parker and Wise counties.

“When you look at the shape of Fort Worth, we are going to keep growing,” said Cooke. “Our approach to policing remains the same across all counties to make sure everyone is taken care of.”

Murder Worth

In the late '80s and early '90s, Fort Worth experienced a series of violent crime and property crime. Gang violence, a lack of policing and population growth were all contributing factors. 

In 1985, disappearances of and murders of several women fueled fears. Some women carried weapons and more than 3,000 people showed up to a free self-defense course led by police.

Fort Worth’s experience with crime was a part of a national trend. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the number of violent crimes reported spiked nationwide. In 1987, reports nationwide increased 2% from the previous year to a new high. Fort Worth’s crime jumped by 7.7% in the same year with 77,563 reported crimes.

In response, the Fort Worth City Council began pouring money into the police department. 

In 1985, Thomas Windham was appointed police chief. By 1988, Windham had increased police spending by 26%.

Paul Stevens, former director of the crime resistance task force and overseer of the comprehensive crime prevention program, said the only way to slow crime was by creating a bigger police force.

“Everyone was scared and wanted solutions,” said Young, remembering the desperation felt by her Southside Fort Worth community. With crime rates 189% higher than the national average, she said there were days she could not go outside.

But not everyone was on the same page.

Former TCU Associate Professor of Sociology Bill Reese, who specializes in criminology, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there is no correlation between the amount of money spent on the police department and the crime rate.

Reese said that aspects such as population growth, which Fort Worth was experiencing, and politics impact the crime rate. In addition, Fort Worth police officers had computer terminals in patrol cars making filing crimes more simple than for other officers around the nation.

In 1989, Chief Windham disputed FBI statistics that suggested Fort Worth was the nation’s crime capital for two years. 

According to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the time, Fort Worth was at the top of the overall crime list because of the high numbers of burglaries and property thefts. Fort Worth ranked 30th nationwide in murder and 38th in serious assault across the United States.

Still, the image of a city gripped by crime remained.

“We used to be the murder capital,” said Solo Lucci, a former member of the Crips gang in the early 90s. “Some people even called it Murder Worth.”

Many residents feared gang activity, even though the police force had increased.

In 1989, Fort Worth police said there were 132 active gangs in the city. Police said most gangs were organized along “traditional social lines” but many were profit-oriented due to peddling crack cocaine.

Lucci said crack cocaine was a moneymaker in the Southside neighborhood. He said he became a gangbanger at 13 — “There was no choice.”

Still, Windham insisted that “The Fort Worth police officers are very good, and their association is very good.”

“The declining murder rate from 135 to 97 last year, is evidence of increased police visibility and the effectiveness of drug crackdowns,” he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Windham also emphasized the Neighborhood Crime Watch where residents worked with police to combat the high number of burglaries and thefts in Fort Worth.

The city's violent crime rate peaked in 1992. There were 9,392 violent crimes reported, according to the FBI.

The next year, after overcoming economic and social challenges, Fort Worth received the All-American City Award which recognizes communities that leverage civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to solve local issues. 

By 1995, the crime rate dropped to its lowest level in 20 years, according to reports in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Many credit Windham's leadership and the prevention programs. 

In the same year, then-Mayor Kay Granger proposed dedicating a half-cent sales tax to finance a dramatic expansion of crime-fighting programs, referred to as the Fort Worth Crime Control and Prevention District budget.

Clinton's Crime Bill

Fort Worth was not alone in seeking solutions to diminish crime. On Sept. 13, 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed the Crime Bill, which included money for 100,000 new police officers and the building of new prisons.

Between 1970 and 1980, violent crime rates in America had nearly tripled. In the midst of fear from communities across the country, the federal government was little to no help.

The fear ran deep. School children went so far as writing letters to Clinton addressing their concerns with criminal activity in their neighborhoods.

Clinton campaigned on a promise to restore both the government and troubled communities across the nation. He vowed that expanding the number of police along with building a partnership between communities and law enforcement would do exactly that. 

“The real measure of our progress is whether responsibility and respect for the law are on the rise,” said Clinton. “The real test of our resolve is whether parents can unlock their front doors with confidence and let their children play in the front yard without fear.” 

In addition to the increase in police and prisons, the Clinton Administration committed to creating stricter gun laws, innovative programs for young people, drug courts, stiffer penalties for violent offenders and smarter prevention.

The initial response to the Crime Bill was favorable. Gallup, a global analytics firm, reported an increased percentage of Americans felt there was less crime in the nation in the following years.

In 1998, Clinton secured full funding for the first installment of his 21st Century Policing Initiative, which included the addition of 50,000 police officers by 2005 and equipping them with new advanced weapons to fight crime.

By 2002, crime rates fell to a 27-year low. Murder rates dropped to the lowest point in 33 years and gun-related violence was reduced by nearly half. 

But critics say the Crime Bill went too far. They say it contributed to mass incarceration, especially of Black and brown people. 

The United States leads the world in incarcerations. According to the Montana Innocence Project, more than two million people are incarcerated in the U.S., making up about 25% of the world’s prison population.

More recently, Clinton conceded that while the Crime Bill did make communities feel safer, it has fed the epidemic of mass incarceration.

During the 2016 presidential election, the 1994 crime bill was a major roadblock for candidate Hillary Clinton. The former president even spoke out against the measure he once touted.

“I signed a bill that made the problem worse,” Bill Clinton told an audience at the NAACP’s annual meeting in Philadelphia in 2015. “And I want to admit it.”

Criticism of the CCPD

Criticism of the Fort Worth CCPD is not new; however, opposition became more prominent as the “defund the police” movement swept across the nation in the summer of 2020. 

The negative connotation of “defund” angered many, but many of those who called for it explained they didn’t really want to stop funding the police.

Instead, they said they aimed to reallocate portions of police funding to other departments that needed the money more. They said the movement also aimed to inspire conversation about the police budget. 

More police, which costs more money, does not mean fewer crimes are committed. The police respond to crime, but they don’t prevent it, said Young.

Ann Zadeh, former Fort Worth council member, said that there are good programs in the CCPD, and the money should be committed more to those crime prevention methods.

The lion’s share of the CCPD budget is not going toward crime prevention. Instead, the CCPD is adding more money to an already bloated police budget, Young said.

Zadeh and Young agree that one way CCPD funds could be better spent is by investing more money into mental health first responders and crisis intervention teams.

The idea behind these programs is that some situations are better approached by individuals who aren’t armed and are trained in mental health services. Sending a police officer to a suicide situation, for example, could escalate the problem rather than solve it.

In August 2020, the Austin City Council voted to cut Austin’s police budget by $150 million, roughly a third of the department’s overall budget. This would make Austin the first major Texas city to slash police funding. About $20 million of the proposed $150 million cuts came from eliminating three planned police cadet classes.

That funding would have been redistributed to other areas like violence prevention, food access and abortion access programs. About $80 million in budget cuts came from moving civilian functions, like support and victims’ services, out of the police department and into other areas of city government. The remaining $50 million of the cut came from reallocating funds to the “Reimagine Safety Fund.” This fund finances alternative ways to keep the community safe.

But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott viewed it as an attack on law enforcement. He backed Senate Bill 23 (SB 23) which made it more difficult for Texas cities to relocate police department funds.

SB 23, which passed in the spring of 2021, requires Texas cities or counties to hold a local election before cutting the law enforcement budget, decreasing the number of police officers or reducing training and recruitment funds per officer. 

The bill focuses on law enforcement’s percentage of the budget rather than the specific dollar amount, so if the entire budget is lowered, the law enforcement budget may be lowered proportionally. For example, if a city cuts its entire budget by 5%, the law enforcement budget may be cut by 5% or less without voter approval.

If the state determines that a city or county cut the law enforcement budget without first holding a local election on the matter, the city or county will not be allowed to raise property taxes the following year.

In Fort Worth, the police department, in addition to its own budget, is supplied with around $80 million through the CCPD.

The Fort Worth CCPD is put up to vote again every five years. Since its founding in the 1990s, the Fort Worth CCPD has been reapproved at every session. The last time the Fort Worth CCPD was voted on was the summer of 2020.

The summer of 2020 was a difficult time to put the bill in front of voters because of national events at the time, including the “defund the police” movement, said Cooke.

Despite the surrounding drama, the CCPD bill was put in front of voters — only this time, the bill was proposed to last 10 years instead of five. The period was extended because voting on the CCPD every five years felt excessive, and sometimes it takes more than five years to evaluate its impact, Cooke said.

Other cities with a CCPD tax district, including Keller, Azle and North Richland Hills, had been approved for 15 or 20-year periods.

As expected, the five-year time extension inspired concern from some voters. It meant the CCPD couldn’t be touched until 2030. 

By extending the time period to 10 years, the locked ourselves in until 2030 and aren’t able to reallocate funds if need be, said Zadeh.

Much of the CCPD opposition came from the time extension and lack of transportation funding, as other major cities usually dedicate their half-cent sales tax to transportation instead of crime control. However, others began to question the necessity of the CCPD itself.

In the tense political climate of 2020, the CCPD was both heavily promoted and opposed through targeted ad campaigns, door hangers and mailers.

At the 2020 CCPD election, voter turnout was higher than ever before, with a soaring 55,975 votes overall compared to the 2014 election’s 14,282 votes, according to election results on Fort Worth’s website.

Along with a higher voter turnout, there was also a higher percentage of opposing votes than there was in the past. People were less supportive of a bloated police budget than ever before, said Lizzie Maldonado, a founder of Fort Worth Futures. 

In the 2014 CCPD election, approximately 17% of voters opposed the renewal of the CCPD. In 2020, that number increased to approximately 36%, according to election results on Fort Worth’s website.

These students contributed to this report: Izzy Acheson, Allie Brown, Maddy Buchanan, Elizabeth Burns, Chloe Cloud, Chaelie DeJohn, Ella Gibson, Kate Hellmund, Anya Ivory, Nicole Johnson, Iris Lopez. Mike Niezgodzki, Camilla Price, Rebecca Robinson, Edgar Saenz, Tristen Smith, Bailee Utter, Katherine Vaughn, Kyla Vogel

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