Community Policing History

In 1986, after a year of planning, the territorial concept of policing, the first step to the implementation of community policing in Fort Worth, was launched. The department abandoned patrol management on a temporal basis only, and established 4 Field Operations Divisions (FOD), North, South, East and West. The North Field Operations Division already had a police facility in the community, and the East FOD used a former bank building, purchased during the team policing era. South FOD shared an older building with the Traffic Division, and West was in temporary quarters too small to serve as suitable division headquarters. A building plan was launched that would lead to usable buildings for all of the FODs, which would allow for the decentralization of detectives, the most successful aspect of the team policing experiment. In a radical change for Fort Worth, a captain was placed over each Field Operations Division and is given full charge over both the patrol and investigative function.

In early 1986, Thomas R. Windham, who was selected to be the Chief of Police of the Fort Worth Police Department in December 1985, initiated a whirlwind period of meetings internally to learn the department and its personnel. During this process, he initiated a series of monthly meetings with the community called forums that continues today. The forum's objectives were to seek input from the community on departmental issues with a focus on creating and supporting community dialogue and increased citizen participation. The forum process has proven to be a cornerstone in developing a responsive community-oriented police department.

The Chief made himself available to attend meetings of any community group, no matter how small the group, where the meeting was located, or when the meeting was held. These meetings presented the Chief with an overall picture of the concerns of the community was experiencing and, more importantly, with their perception of the police department. The input provided at these meetings would be vital in the later reorientation of service delivery, reorganization of the department, and would provide an improvement in the confidence of the public in the police department.

The Fort Worth Police Department had 845 authorized positions for commissioned officers at the end of 1985, placing the city in the lower quartile of officers for a city of 250,000 to 500,000 population. During the period 1985 to 1989 this figure was increased to 988 officers, an increase of 16.9%.

The progression of territorial command implementation remained the number one goal of the department with plans for the eventual move to four (4) full-service FOD headquarters. A new South FOD Headquarters was purchased and remodeled at the start of the 90's and a permanent West FOD building would be ready by the end of 1991. The final piece of the puzzle would open in the first quarter of 1992, an East FOD facility.

Along with the facilities expansion came the growth of roots into the community. Commanders held an ever increasing number of meetings with community groups within their purview. Community Relations Officers (CRO) were established within each FOD to assist citizens in problem solving and in crime prevention efforts. Detectives in non-specialized areas were moved to the FOD headquarters where they could be closer to victims, witnesses, and patrol officers.

As the territorial command structure took hold throughout the city, the department began to move towards a proactive form of service delivery, community-based policing. The department began the arduous task of convincing the citizens that the battle against crime could only be fought and won through a cooperative effort between the community and the department, that the days of "leaving crime fighting to the police" were over. The implementation of territorial command had built a strong communications link with the community.

In 1991, a comprehensive crime reduction campaign, Code Blue was instituted. During public budget hearings the Mayor and City Council time and again heard from angry business owners and neighbors who came forward to indicate that they no longer felt safe in their neighborhoods, homes, or in their places of business. The Fort Worth Police Department at that time had 925 actual officers and 311 non-sworn support staff. The council struggled with the problem of addressing the needs of the citizens while also supplying other needed services within the constraints of an ever-tightening budget structure. A number of newspaper articles were published which revealed Fort Worth to have one of the highest crime rates in the nation. This message found its way into major publications and was shown on national network news programs dealing with crime. Consequently, crime had become more than just a neighborhood concern, it was emerging as an economic development issue. The Chamber of Commerce along with other city business leaders were realizing that major business entities were reluctant to relocate to Fort Worth because of the crime rate.

Because crime had taken such a strong grip on the community it was the general consensus of all that a multi-disciplinary approach involving the community, police department, other city departments, schools, and other interested entities would be required to address the issue. After a series of discussions among top level city management, community groups, the Mayor, and Chief of Police, it was decided the best way to address these concerns was through a series of crime prevention initiatives, called Code Blue.

The name for the program was adapted from medical terminology for an emergency situation in which all means are utilized to save the patient, which in this case was the city itself.

Code:Blue in scope is the most far-reaching and comprehensive program ever mounted by this or possibly any other city. Many of the components were only indirectly related to the police department but were crucial to the overall success of the project. Most of these programs are aimed at the youth in the community and serve as a deterrent to criminal activity. "Code Blue" provided funding for the following projects:

Due to the citywide support for Code Blue, a number of other programs emerged during the budget year that would serve to support or expand the program. While the program contains a substantial number of projects the components having the most significant impact on crime and service delivery are Citizens on Patrol, Neighborhood Patrol Officers, Citizens Police Academy, Kids Code Blue, and Weed & Seed. The major program goals of Code Blue are: