 Good evening everyone My name is Jay Chapa. I'm deputy city manager for the city of Fort Worth And I'd like to welcome everyone and Thank you for coming both in person and those folks that are watching this virtually or on our cable channel This is a really important function that ultimately Leads to us selecting our next police chief Which is one of the most important positions in the city The search process to fill this position has certainly been unique as We have navigated the various issues presented by the COVID pandemic We started the process with our search firm Strategic government resources engaging stakeholders in virtual focus groups to receive feedback on those traits most desired by residents Additionally, they conducted surveys of both residents and the employees at the police department This forum tonight will allow residents to acquaint themselves with the six finalists The forum is a hybrid event with this ballroom that normally sits over 3,000 people Only providing for about a hundred and fifty or less than a hundred and fifty seats Additionally various covid safety precautions are being taken like the wearing of masks as I mentioned earlier This forum is also being streamed on the city's web page the city's cable channel and Facebook live One of the things I wanted to make sure that everyone knew is if you as a resident would like to provide feedback You can go to the same webs the same email address where we took questions from citizens Fort Worth connection or FW connection, excuse me at Fort worth Texas gov and submit any feedback that you That you have on on the candidates as we go to now So now to kick this off I'd like to introduce our moderator That will be handling the the questions this evening Someone who's normally would be ending her day right now and be getting refurbished It is our own NBC 5 today anchor Debra Ferguson we typically see Debra We typically see Debra every morning way before the sun rises when she and the NBC 5 team bring us the news weather and traffic between 4 30 and 7 a.m Debra is an award-winning journalist, but more than that she calls Fort Worth home, and she understands the importance of what we're doing tonight Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our moderator Debra Ferguson nine eight seven six five four three all right Thank you, Jay. Okay, you know there's always a little snafu that goes on when something's coming live So we got that over with we got that done we're all together now But Jay is right normally with my morning show anchor duties. This is about my regular bedtime I'd be hunkered down in bed counting sheep, but this is a big moment for the city I love and so I'm here tonight with you I can always sleep tomorrow through the weekend we can catch up on that It is an honor to be here and to be part of this experience My job tonight is to simply be the connection between what the community wants to know and the six men and women Who have the information each will tell us why he or she is qualified for this job They'll respond to your questions and leave us with final thoughts about why we should give them our trust and support The city opened this interview process to all corners of Fort Worth by asking residents to submit questions They'd like to ask of the city's next police chief After collecting all of the questions that came in from residents six major categories came to the forefront We will focus on these topics tonight Giving each candidate the opportunity to answer each question within a two-minute time frame Before we bring out the finalists I'd like to say thank you to everyone who invested time and thought to be part of this process Whether you submitted a question whether you're in the room tonight, whether you are watching from home Thank you for being part of this important decision I'd also like to thank the men and women who we will meet tonight who put on the badge Kiss their families at home. Goodbye to serve and protect Ladies and gentlemen, let's meet our candidates for the next police chief of the city of Fort Worth We will introduce them to you in alphabetical order giving each one just a moment to stand in the room So you can see them before we bring all of them out and we begin with Wendy Bainbridge Wendy Bainbridge comes to us from the Houston police department where she has been the assistant chief since 2017 Chief Bainbridge good evening and thank you for being with us tonight Let us start with the very first question and that is provide a summary of your experience that makes you a strong candidate for the position of chief of police and why would you want to come to Fort Worth or maybe to say why not? Yes, that's right. That's right. It's a wonderful city. I just first want to start by saying Thank you all it is certainly a privilege being here and amongst the finalists in Fort Worth You have a wonderful city. It is well managed It's got a very responsive leadership and the community is very active and engaged and supportive of the police department I have been on with Houston police department for 29 years. I have been about 67 years in each rank I have my current assignment is in patrol I have five patrol divisions about a thousand officers serving approximately 1 million of our 2.3 million residents I also have the mental health division that serves citywide residents in my career I've kind of been all over the ore chart and investigations in patrol. I've been in Code enforcement where we looked at and enforce the automotive industry as well as Gambling locations. We also have looked at the illicit massage parlors and so forth I've also worked with the citizens in that same capacity. It's sort of a code enforcement capacity With problematic officers. I've worked with the IED Unit in a division in patrol I've also worked with our early warning system and I have been involved with administrative personnel committee, which is getting officers in a Back to work who have been injured and whether it be on-duty or off-duty and may have some mental health issues I have a bachelor's of business from the University of Houston and a master's in sociology Also from the University of Houston. I'm a wife and a mom My husband Larry is a commander at the Houston Police Department and our son Aaron is 22 and currently a senior at Texas A&M Thank you so much Thank you Chief Bainbridge and now I would like to introduce to you Chief Troy Gay currently with the Austin Police Department just about three hours down 35 short little trip to get here Chief Gay as you get ready to take the microphone We're beginning with the opening question and that is we'd like to know a summary of your experience That makes you a strong candidate for the Chief of Police in Fort Worth and why does Fort Worth appeal to you? Thank you so much for that question and before I get started. I just want to say Thank you for coming now. This is such an important Decision that has to be made and I'm just so thankful to be part of that process I'm on my 34th year of law enforcement starting in Waco in 1987 and then moving to Austin in 1990 I have a broad lens of policing working in multiple assignments throughout all of different policing divisions and units throughout the department and Over the last 14 years. I have been in a command and executive Role for the Austin Police Department I have been to many leadership schools and Most of all over the last decade. I have led most of the innovative efforts for our department I'm a veteran of the United States Marine Corps reserves. I have Served in the desert desert storm in 1990. I was activated as a reservist there I Wanted to transition to just to let you know about me personally personally. I'm a man of faith. I am a father of four Adult children they told me when they said make sure you say adult children so they're and I have a granddaughter who is nine I have a wife that I have been married to for 34 wonderful years and Most of all is that I'm I'm part of the community I'm part of the community that that I live in and I serve each and every day I Give you that Sort of round experience to say that all of my experience has molded me into who I am today a man of integrity a servant leader a effective communicator a Mentor and a and a team player. I think that I am a Good fit for this department because of my experience Because I have led a department into the 21st century of policing and I am so excited to talk to you more tonight Thank you Yes, and we will ask you many more questions tonight. Thank you so much cheek. I appreciate that And now I would like to introduce you to From the candidate who comes from outside of the great state of Texas and that is assistant sheriff Chris Jones is with us tonight from Las Vegas So glad to have you with us assistant sheriff Jones as you make your way up to the microphone We are asking each candidate right now to provide a summary of your experience That makes you a strong candidate for chief of police and why Fort Worth? Thank you very much first off. I want to thank everybody For coming out tonight and for those of you who are watching as this is Broadcast this evening as she said I'm assistant sheriff Chris Jones. I'm with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department a little bit about myself Although I come from out of state to this process. I am a native Texan I was born and raised in the Panhandle and I attended school at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas A little about me personally. I'm happily married for 26 years. I have two adult children That are just amazing and since graduated college Why Fort Worth Like I said, I'm a native Texan. I served the Las Vegas community for the last 28 years As it as very in various positions with the police department I've made my way to the number three position of assistant sheriff and I've gained a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience In education over those years in policing Fort Worth is is a community to me that has demonstrated They are still willing to sit down at the table with their police and the police department is still willing to sit down at the Table to work through the issues that we're seeing That means a lot to me. There are cities Unfortunately in the country. They're just not willing to do that now But Fort Worth is and so I would like to bring my experience in police reform my experience in reducing violent crime and Making our community a better place to live If chosen for this position, I assure you I would give you the same level of service And and level of commitment that I have done for the last 28 years as a law enforcement officer in Las Vegas, Nevada In closing I'd like to say thank you again I know that each of you have something else you could be doing tonight You could be with your families or or anything else, but you chose to be here You chose to be here because you care about the city of Fort Worth, and you care about its police department I appreciate that and I'd love to be part of that. Thank you Thank you so much assistant sheriff Chris Jones And Outcoming into the room is another a native of Fort Worth works just a little to the east He's here with us tonight the chief of police from the Carrollton police department Derek D. Miller is our next candidate sheriff chief Miller. Thank you so much as you make your way to the microphone We're asking each candidate right now to take a moment to provide a summary of your experience that makes you a strong candidate for the Job of chief in Fort Worth and why Fort Worth? Thank you Debra and thank you for everyone coming out and participating in this process Thank you to mayor and counsel. Mr. Cook mr. Chopper for giving us this opportunity. My name is Derek Miller I am the husband of to Wendy and the father to Addison and Austin. That's my greatest achievement To date. I am currently serving as the chief of police in the city of Carrollton before I got to the The city of Carrollton I grew up on the west side of Fort Worth I attended Monning Middle School and then went to Western Hills High School and from there went on to UTA where I Got a bachelor's degree in criminology and criminal justice and a master's degree in criminology and criminal justice as well I entered the police service in 1993 as a police officer actually as a reserve police officer and worked my way up through every rank and position in the Carrollton police Department, it's one of my greatest accomplishments professionally the Carrollton police department is an amazing police department filled with Amazing people who we have created a leaderful organization that is community engagement is the central Theory for us to practice law enforcement. We try at every Chance we get is to engage the community where they are some of the strengths that I'll bring to you in Fort Worth Or my ability to build Relationships and formulate teams. I'm an active listener and I know that we can make Fort Worth an even greater city than it is today I want to thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to answering your questions and hopefully we get to meet and talk afterwards Thank you very much. Thank you so much chief Miller And now please welcome one of two candidates from within the Fort Worth police department Neil notes another Tarleton Graduate here another connection to Tarleton State University Good evening. Good evening chief notes. Thank you as you make your way to the microphone We're asking each candidate that if you would take a moment to tell the audience a summary of the experiences You bring that will make you a strong that makes you a strong candidate for chief of police and also Why Fort Worth? Why for why Fort Worth? That's the easy part. I don't just want to be a police chief I'm not looking for a title. I Want to be the police chief in the city of Fort Worth? I Have the great fortune of serving alongside some of the best men and women you will find anywhere Every single day and when I say that I'm talking about the officers that are out there doing the job every single day I'm talking about our civilian employees. I'm talking about our volunteers And I'm talking about the citizens that we're here to serve in the first place For me, this isn't about a job. This is about leading my family my Fort Worth family and that encompasses all of us And what I think qualifies me more than anything as a candidate for this job is My past work What I have been doing in the department what I've been doing in the city in the communities I Spend a lot of time building relationships Not because I'm better than anyone else, but that's where my heart is My heart is with the officers. My heart is with the community. There is a divide between all of us right now The only way we fix that is if we come together and that's what I want to do I want to be the one that bridges that gap Because if we want to deal with the issues we're all facing Let's look at the core root problems of crime in the first place None of us can do it alone But if we all come together We work collaboratively in partnership-based Relationship policing We're not gonna arrest our way out of the problem that working together We can absolutely make a difference and I would be thrilled to death if I was able to get the chance to do just that Thank you very much Thank you very much chief notes And our sixth finalists for police chief in Fort Worth also coming to us from within the Fort Worth police department is Julie swearing gin Julie as you make your way up to the microphone We are asking each candidate to take a moment to give us a summary of your experiences that makes you a strong candidate for police chief and Why do you want to be chief of Fort Worth? Okay. Thank you. Good evening and thank you for this opportunity Why Fort Worth? I've committed the last 25 years to this department this city And I believe the experience of the 25s years working in the different units and promoting each rank has prepared me for this next step I believe this is an incredible city. We have Community members that truly care about our department in our city and we want to work together with them What I bring is someone who's worked hard to get to where I'm at. I've climbed to the ranks. I've promoted a Little bit about my story. I'm a little bit of a the underdog I was a pregnant 17 year old dropout and I've worked very hard to get where I am in today And in getting through the obstacles and challenges So what I bring is my people skills my ability to connect and to hopefully connect to the communities that we're having trouble Repairing trusting with the city in the relationship with the police department. Thank you. Thank you very much chief swearing gin Ladies and gentlemen, you've gotten a first look at our six finalists for chief of police the men and women who one of them Will lead our city of nine hundred thousand. I want to and again to each of you Thank you very much for your many years of service that you've given to your respective cities and to your residents And for what you do within your departments and for the families you leave behind every day to go serve your cities We do appreciate what you do as I explained earlier the questions that we asked tonight come straight from the community These are the questions that have been submitted on behalf of residents what the residents wanted to know of each of you The questions that came in will boil down to the top six categories And that's what we'll focus on tonight for those of you in the room and those of you watching through virtually I want to let you know each candidate will have two minutes to answer the question We do have a sort of a timekeeper here on the front row that our finalists know to look at We're not going to drag anybody off the stage if they go over the two minutes We'll let them finish their thoughts, but I just want to let you know We're not going to let anybody kind of hog the conversation, and I'm probably doing that right now So I better go ahead and move on. All right. So we are going to begin With our first question and we will go in the way that you were introduced in the beginning alphabetical order down the Roaster Chief Bainbridge. We will start with you The first question coming from our community has to do with crime reduction. It's one question But it's in three parts. Okay, so you'll get 12 minutes. You'll get two minutes to answer I'll lay it all out to you like many cities across the country Fort Worth has experienced an extreme increase in homicides and violent crime What do you believe are the major factors that have led to this increase? What are you proposing to address these increases also recognizing there are constraints on the police budget and While you are reducing violent crime How do you keep a reduction on non violent crimes? Okay, can you hear me? Very good question so important in your right. It is hitting every major city across this nation this violent crime up sweet Fort Worth has seen a 60% rise in murders and a 40% rise increase in Aggravated assaults and half of that has been due to domestic violence Regarding the murder increase and it's been a nexus to robberies gangs narcotics and to simple people just being angry You see an increase of those type of incidents like road rage, for example, and so you would handle them differently I believe in a collaborative approach whether it be looking at crimes reducing calls and you got to look at it both the same to be efficient if you're talking about crime you have to Work and get the intelligence of what's going on within those gangs Who are the shot callers within those robbery crews and that takes intelligence that takes looking at more than just data Get with your DA's office get with the feds the federal prosecutors and also get with your your state and federal agencies regarding Enforcement when you collaborate and see things from various perspectives you have a more permanent resolution Get in and dismantle those gangs you can see how we can arrest and arrest and have all of these Felony arrests but never reduce crime. That's because who are you arresting? Are you really making an impact on those crews that are doing the robberies, for example? I believe in aggravated assaults looking at the domestic violence very difficult for law enforcement to positively impact that But there are some things that you can do and our experience We have what's called a lethality assessment where we're working with our victims assistance And we're asking those particular questions on a lethality assessment Because oftentimes we'll talk to our victims will say you know where this is going It's got to get worse and worse and they don't really believe us They think that you know, this is just what police say But when they see it and answer all of those questions and they can see where their life is headed It really changes things and we have seen a reduction in recidivism to calls to those type of those houses where these Usually women have completed these assessments those assessments go to a victims of services for a follow-up We are now deploying Officers co-deploying officers with victims assistance to the domestic violence calls while the officers are handling the The crime part of that the social part of that It's also shelter and crime problem is being handled with that victims assistance They're getting them into shelter that night Helping with the kids and helping with the animals because oftentimes those are the first ones in the home that are being abused It's a holistic approach and we're seeing some pretty positive results from that It's in its infancy But we have to look outside of what our normal deployment methods are for again for a more permanent resolution Regarding your other types of calls look at your calls that are non police related And if you can do something about them, then you could allow your police officers then focus more on crime It's more efficient. There's not a chief across this country that will say I've got enough I'm I'm my two minutes. I'm sorry. I could talk forever, but you kind of get the idea. It's a collaborative approach about the Crime problems and the non call for sir calls for service that don't have anything to do with crime. Thank you Thank you to you favorite. Yes All right to you chief gay. I'll ask the question once again It's again it focuses on crime reduction like many cities across the country Fort Worth has experienced an extreme increase in homicides and violent crime So our community wants to know what do you believe are the major factors that have led to this increase? What do you propose to reduce violent crime? You'd also understanding the tight budget constraints and how do you also keep a lid on the non violent crimes or you addressed the homicides Thank You Deborah. Whoa Thank You Deborah that is a great question I know Wendy already went over the statistics for the crime and that That we're having to face that I'm gonna focus on the collaborative approach that that she really mentioned is that a Police department cannot do it alone It has to be a collaborative approach and we have to come up with solutions the way that I Like to look in and how I would address crime is is really data driven you have to look at the data You have to see what it says you have to employ Intelligence led policing and using evidence-based strategies. I mean there's good strategies out there I could go over hotspot policing, which is just one strategy that is really talking about Going to a particular location, but it's it's giving your officers clear direction in reference to what they're to do and making sure that they are Doing the attended consequences that you want them too often There's the zero tolerance and folks go in and then there's unattended consequences for those type of strategies You need to look at that you need to develop your strategies with your community and in a collaborative approach So I would really look at doing a data-driven approach I would look at are the technologies that are out there that would help our investigators I would look at the organizational structure at how the units are are organized and how they're designed and are we set up for success and most of all is that The community needs to have a voice in in how to address crime It's a force multiplier. The police department is only a small segment of the community But together by creating tip lines two-way communications There are ways that that we can work together Crime can be solved if we have trust and legitimacy and we're working together on the problem Thank you. Thank you chief gay in the interest of time assistant sheriff Jones. Do you need me to repeat the question? That's kind of Okay, all right Sorry a lot of lot of good points made I do agree with the evidence-based policing the intelligence-led policing that data is going to tell You exactly where your problems are and that intelligence-led policing is going to tell you exactly who is causing your problems What is driving that crime in that particular area? So I would add to what each of the candidates have said that The major factors to me are a combination of things We've all lived through this last year. We know what is causing the tension. We know what's causing The quickness to to act out through violence rather than work things out in a civil way We've been cooped up. We're tired of COVID Employments up all of those factors contribute to the violence that we've seen in every single city across the United States And so with respect to the murders I believe that there is a crime prevention plan for every causational factor of murders Be it domestic violence be it gangs be it narcotics There's there's a plan that we can put in place as police along with the community to address Every single one of those causative factors and first and foremost it's to partner with the community If we're partnering with the community if we're doing everything we can to build that trust within our communities Those crime numbers will fall in place. The community will trust us. They will report to us. They will give us information we know from experience that we have to solve The shootings and the violent crimes that don't result in murder and we will have a direct impact on murders a person who gets away with one shooting that doesn't kill someone will do another shooting and will lead to another shooting and So by solving those what we refer to as failed murders We get the shooters off the streets. We get the guns off the streets We we've put a plan in place to deal with the issues that are happening behind closed doors and domestic violence By a co-responding given those wraparound services to the victims And we do all of this in cooperation with other agencies with other non-governmental agencies Because it's been said before we can't do it alone and certainly the budget is not going to support it So a number of things we can do in Fort Worth. We've done them in Las Vegas And I would bring that experience here to this city and be successful Thank you so much assistant sheriff Jones chief Miller. Would you like me to thank you so much I think the factors that are causing crime we can look to the literature to find out that what some of those things are There's a whole host of sociological and criminological theories that speak to what we're going through now in our society the inability to attain Certain things a variety of goals in society I think causes strain and these strains and stressors sometimes sometimes lead to crime multi-generational poverty underperforming Social institutions Things of that nature are contributing to these issues So work needs to be done in this space before we can have a positive impact on on the crime issues Think about it. If you look at the report of crime in Texas that came out in 2019 over 690,000 people were arrested in state of Texas There are 28 million people in state of Texas and all of Texas 690,000 people are arrested over 70% of those people We're arrested for the second time So if we look at who is offending who's offending the causational facts We will come to the conclusion that the law law enforcement by themselves cannot tackle this problem The the the way to address it is we need to collaborate with social Services to try to help people Get on their feet to relieve some of these strains and stressors if you look at housing and How being able to attain housing in the African-American community the number one One of the main factors is a high loan denial to be able to get into a home 33% of the people get in the home spend almost 30% of their of their income on homes 15% spend over 50% of their total income on housing so strains economic strains the inability to attain Go and Middle-class goals all have factors in the causation of crime the police department by itself can tackle these problems So we need a holistic approach bringing the community along with us using all the strategies that the other candidates have spoken about our strong Professional approaches to how to handle crime, but we cannot do it by ourselves. We have to listen to the community We have to figure out what the real issues are before we can even have an impact on it. Thank you Thank you so much chief Miller to you chief notes the same question We're seeing Homicides at a rate in Fort Worth that we haven't seen in a quarter century. It's a trend that's going on nationwide But if you ask people in Fort Worth, they don't care about the nation so much with the crime rate They care about the place they live not that they don't care about the country, but they want their own homes and neighborhoods to be safe So what we're doing in Fort Worth is addressing those concerns We've heard some great things about different data-driven strategies, and we absolutely do those We've heard some amazing things I'm glad chief Miller brought up about the societal issues that contribute to this The food deserts we see the underperforming schools Resources that are needed but aren't there the generational neglect we've seen in a lot of communities contributes to this We've got some amazing men and women in the forward police department They go out every day and do their best to address the violent crime, and I commend them for the work. They do What we're trying now is to reach out even further to the community one of the best things I heard about Zero tolerance or saturation details, which is an old method that used to be used If the police department goes into a neighborhood and the only tool they have on their tool belt is a hammer Everybody starts to look like a nail and that means we're Targeting even the citizens we're trying to serve so we don't do that in Fort Worth We use focused deterrence where we actually go into the communities Specifically dealing with the people involved with the violence Something else we're doing actually chief Krauss and I talked about this recently was an idea I pitched him and it looks like It's going to happen a Lot of times the only difference between an aggravated assault and a homicide is a little bit of luck Oftentimes the people who are doing the shootings Who are causing these aggravated assaults are our shooters in the homicide as well the problem is The detectives working those are so overloaded with their cases in general assignment and as you pointed out They're also dealing with property crimes Well, we're put want to put together as a team designed specifically to deal with non-fatal shootings a team that doesn't have to deal with The property crimes we will let the detectives and general assignment deal with that But we put the same resources We put the same training and we put the same investigative power into Investigating the non-fatal shootings and in doing so we will be preventing some of the homicides that are happening right away So that's a way to have more of an immediate impact It's a program that's being done in Denver and they have seen a significant increase in their clearance rates on their aggravated assaults And we expect to see the same kind of results here in Fort Worth. Thank you Thank you chief nooks and same question for you chief Swarajan Okay, can you hear me now? Thank you, you know, I think everyone has spoke to kind of the things that I was going to talk about so I'll come with a different approach Yes, violent crimes have increased and homicides But how about we work to prevent that we can Use resources we have and cross train them and put them in different places, you know Yes, we can have add homicide detectors investigate cases prevent retaliation But how about as a community we work together to prevent these types of crimes that are occurring in our city And how do we do that as we build the trust with the community members? We get back to the old beat concept think of it from grassroots, you know if I have a beat I know who lives in my beat and I Develop a relationship with you and I build that trust with you that way you're apt to report something You don't see you know exactly what's going on in your community What cars are there? What cars don't belong there? So we need to work together to build that trust and I know this is gonna take time But I think we need to get there because again, I we don't want to be reporting crimes and responding after the fact How about we prevent them, you know, and again, I know the data shows that we do what we're doing for violent crime right now We are doing Details and targeting gun violence and some of the areas that have the violent crimes. We deploy officers when staffing allows to kind of do a Aggressive beats to look for some of these criminals and make a rest But again, I think the answer is working together as a community and building that trust again So we can work together because crime is going to increase Until we say enough is enough together and we work together to combat it. Thank you. Thank you She's wearing Jim That was again our first topic crime reduction number one topic or one of the big topics from our audience our community questions Now we're moving on to the next topic that our Residents wanted to know about and that is community oriented policing We want to know about your approach to promoting the concept of community oriented policing throughout the police department From your knowledge What does the Fort Worth police department do well and what changes would you like to make to the current program? Including neighborhood police officers and this time we're going to start with you chief gay. Thank you Debra My philosophy on community policing or in policing in general is is around two concepts and that is procedural justice as well as Collaborative policing. I believe that I do know that a few years ago the Fort Worth police department had a procedural justice unit and actually Trained all their officers in procedural justice. So I think that is a very positive also know that in some of the reports that have Been pushed out from the police expert panel on their their preliminary reports really talks about Community policing so I'm going to sort of go into a lane of saying is that one is that I don't believe community policing or policing in in the aspect of procedural justice as well as a Coordinated effort is is one unit's job. I think it's the it should be woven into every officers Duty and responsibility to serve the community that they are part of and I say that because Our officers should be part of the community that we serve They should show up each and every day They should be part. I know Julie mentioned it about bringing the fabric of the neighborhood officer your officers should show up and take the call, but take an extra couple minutes During that call to ask how they're doing to ask if there's anything else that they can do This is bigger than something on a poster and a wall This is something that should be in the fabric of the DNA of each officer And and that is the type of officer and the expectations that I would leave from the front To be present visible engaged each and every day to leave this department to be more of a community Engaged a community policing department. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much, Chief K This is the Sheriff Jones your answer to the question. Thank you So I'll start with with you know, there are a number of definitions out there for community oriented policing Some people define it as you know coffee with a cop or or you know Tuesday meetings or what I would have you but in reality those are just elements that that help to build Relationships between the police and the community to me the definition of community policing is the police working Collaboratively with citizens and with community leaders so that the citizens become stewards of their own community And we this police serve as guardians and that's what our police officers have to understand they are guardians in those communities and I was asked earlier today how How we promote community oriented policing and how we get officers to buy into the concept and the way we do that is We allow them to see the successes of it We allow them to see the kids who were out playing in the street The people who come up to them in the neighborhoods and tell them about what crimes have occurred and who's committing those crimes and once officers see that They understand it and it becomes the culture of the department because they see the successes of it They see how it makes them feel inside Because I know each and every one of the Fort Worth police officers Want to feel that way and strive to feel that way every day. They serve this community well And I know that they have a number of community oriented policing practices in place with the neighborhood officer program What would I part of the question was what would I do differently? The biggest issue is Making sure that that our officers go out there every single day with a servant heart and There's there's by a space training there's Training that we can put them through that that allows them to understand how they can start programs within a community How they can be sort of that? Collective effort that brings a community together and gives back to that community Our officers have to understand that is their job to give to the community rather than take from And so through all of those programs and and through developing community policing programs Encouraging that making part of the Fort Worth police officers culture They see those successes and the community will see those successes in in the In a sense of crime reduction and in a safer place to live Thank you so much assistant sheriff Jones to you chief Miller Thank you community policing to me is quite simple It's law enforcement coming together with the community to solve substantive problems But this presupposes that the police department has a relationship with the community In our in my department We've been very successful of collaborating and fostering relationships in the city that would allow us to further our community Engagement every officer is inculcated in our into our fiber that community engagement is everyone's job It's every police officer's job. It can't be coalesced in a unit or a few programs programs can Accelerate the idea of community policing For police department does an amazing job with his NPO units is crime awareness Folks in every patrol division. It's pow program. It's a school resource officers gang and intervention There's a myriad of things that the four police department are doing. They're extremely extremely effective Well, we would do different perhaps maybe make sure they were focused NPO's on the north side should be making sure that The services that they're providing although different and tailored to the particular Side of town are also being mirrored on the south side. What's happening on Amanda Street is happening on Las Vegas It loves Vegas trail what's happening on the north side is happening on the south side And these things will become over time a culture for the police department It also starts with leadership community engagement the idea of community engagement has to be Exhibited and modeled by the leaders of the organization or the culture will not change Change will take time and we have to make sure and we have to tell our police officers that it's okay it's okay to stop and try to figure out what the problems are and Then use the resources of the department through units and initiatives to try to figure out the best way for it to solve Substantive problems crime only exists because there's offenders victims and locations And so once you identify what the problems are the real problems is then you can deploy Strategies that you can try to curb the issues, but then you have to measure to make sure that you're getting a return on your investment with the strategies Thank you. Thank you chief Miller to you chief note same question regarding community oriented policing Thank you Community policing is not a program Community policing is a mindset There are programs in the forward police department that supports the community policing mindset But for community policing to work it has to permeate the entire department and everything we do It's important for officers to understand when they're out in the community that every single interaction they have with the citizen It's a chance for a positive engagement or it's a chance for a negative engagement. It's a chance to change the narrative It's a chance to create a relationship We have to be more intentional and law enforcement in general About creating opportunities for those positive engagements. We cannot wait for the community to come to us It is up to us to go to the community We can't always expect the community to agree with everything we say if we only go to communities That agree with us and already like the Fort Worth police department. We're not doing our job fully We have to be willing to have hard conversations We have to be willing to be in communities all across the city regardless of zip code and give them the same exact kind of professional Compassionate empathetic service that we would give anyone else Everyone deserves it. I see everyday officers that do make these interactions with citizens and they don't have to be Anything large it could be something small But it's the fact that they took the time to get to know someone It's the fact that they took the time to maybe have that hard conversation and bring someone into their their own personal space One of the things that I think we could change because we do a great job here in Fort Worth PD But we could always do better. We have some amazing NPO's. I think sometimes the NPO position has been a bit watered down They've been come maybe a bit of a jack of all trades at times And it's not done because anyone is trying to sabotage the program It's done out of necessity if there's something that needs to be done and no one else is around oftentimes the NPO's are the ones to do it I Think we need to get back more towards focusing completely on community policing across the department But also allowing to do the NPO's to do what the program was designed to do in the first place. Thank you Thank you chief nox and to you chief Swarington same question. Okay. Thank you So community policing is a partnership and as they've mentioned we can't do this alone the police department cannot do this alone And what we do good as a as a department is we do have our NPO programs And we do have community programs as chief Miller mentioned and all those are great I'll go back to what I said about we're building trust. You're gonna hear us most of us say It's about building trust with the community and gaining that respect and that support I'll go back to the B concept So we have an NPO and he's tasked with the community piece and building the bridges and having community meetings But just think what about if we had a team so we your area you have a day shift officer a second shift officer and a midnight shift Officer, what about if we had a team so those four along with that NPO? They're the ones who are out there trying to meet the members of the community, you know And I and I say knocking on doors, but what I mean is just actually getting to know the community members in their area that they police you know, we talked about Having the citizens gain that trust and maybe reach out to them and report crimes or activities They see so if you have a team of this for that could work together To go out there and start getting into their area responsibility they'll have a sense of ownership and pride in that area and then the citizens again will build that relationship with their officers also we have Probably two hundred and forty two house of worships and and Fort Worth Use those resources use the church members the community members and other types of organizations have them hold meetings introduce them to that's this team of four that can build a relationship and Can really explore other options on building community relationships? I mean we can do a lot of research you can you can search and find programmed and what we can bring to Fort Worth But I think we need the community to help us do that help us and repair that relationship help us find programs at work for the community Help us that's going to prevent crime getting the community members the resources and the help that they need to be productive citizens Thank you so much Chief Swarington and to you Chief Bainbridge the question regarding community oriented policing, what is your answer? Well, I don't like going last what they said So I'm going to reiterate something that you know neighborhood oriented policing and across this nation began in She probably the 80s and then it became problem-oriented policing Which is working with the citizens and code enforcement and targeting problematic locations to reduce the crime And now it's relational policing because we see that it can't just be That one neighborhood officer, which by the way Fort Worth does that very well I was a chief crosses leadership. You all have done an amazing job in Meeting your public and their demands and exceeding those demands and working with them I think it isn't coming upon all of us Can you imagine not just the neighborhood officer but from the chief on down seeing it through the prism of every Interaction every traffic stop every witness statement that you're obtaining every call for service That even at lunch when you're going out that and they see that uniform and you're talking to them It's the chance to see that you are fair you are impartial it develops that trust that trust is what keeps you safe Because then we'll have knowledge of what's going on too often that trust is just not there sadly And we don't have the understanding of what's really driving the crime and so that's that's crucial that it's 1700 there's other things that you can do they the community They also need to feel like they're part of that crime resolution. They they don't want to feel like a victim They want to they want to know that they're taking part in their working with you Because they want that control over their lives and they deserve that so that relationship must take place Which you can do internally you can change the award system and add a add a relational policing award You can add a community policing award you can that will In give officers an incentive to keep doing that and keep developing that trust and lastly what you can also do is add Proactive policing on your work card and so they can get that point if you will and that they're doing something They're stopping and doing that proactive Engagement between their calls for service. I see I'm out of time. Thank you very much. Thank you chief Bainbridge Okay, you can breathe we're a third of the way through the questions All right six categories we're a third of the way through all right. All right now we move on to another key Area that our audience our community members wanted to know and That's the topic of building community trust accountability as You know building trust with the community is fundamental to effective policing and accountability as seen is a big factor in The city's next chief This is one question with a few parts describe how you insure and assure our communities that those who protect and serve will be held accountable and in your answer specifically address allegations of excessive force and Officers being rude and are unprofessional when dealing with certain community members Provide an example of your experience Addressing these types of situations. I'll go through it one more time. This is the topic of accountability Describe how you insure and assure our communities that those who protect and serve will be held accountable in Your answer specifically address allegations of excessive force Officers being rude and unprofessional when dealing with certain community members and give us an example of your experience and Addressing these types of situations This time we begin with you assistant chief assistant sheriff Jones Well, thank you very much. Obviously a hot topic As we've seen the events over this last year So how do I ensure that our officers will be held accountable first off? It starts with very strong solid policies Clear policies that the officers understand That they get trained on and that they go out on the streets with an expectation That they follow those policies Once you have those policies in place you make sure that your matrix is your discipline matrix is in place And that your internal affairs has the authority and answers to a high enough authority within the police department To make sure that those layers are removed. It shouldn't have internal affairs shouldn't be buried down in deep in a department Because every layer takes from that there's filtering going on and so Making sure that internal affairs are forced to a high enough Authority in the department with policies in place with culture built throughout the department And then you hold the officers accountable officers are going to make mistakes. We're human We have to understand that accept that and we have to differentiate between it's a when it's a training issue Versus something that the officers done that violates a serious policy With respect to executive executive excessive force being rude and unprofessional You politicize it you train your officers. You set a culture You set an expectation and when they're sustained for violating those policies you hold them accountable Disciplines there to change behavior We cannot allow we can no longer allow that to not be in place Officers have to understand that through procedural justice you treat everyone equally you apply the law equally across the board You apply the law with professionalism. It's in the values of in the of the Fort Worth police department And you you make sure that when you have a problematic officer they're dealt with I Think we're we're making headway in that Arbitrators are starting to see that you can no longer give an officer back a job or lessen the discipline For an officer who has been charged with something a number of times I know that Fort Worth police officers go out there every single day to make a difference I've met several of them and I know that they are 99.9 percent the representation of all the police officers on this department But what I have to do is the chief is I have to make sure when we do find that one officer In the 1700 or those few officers we hold them accountable We get get rid of them if we have to But we make them understand that that violations of policy and treating people wrong and using excessive force will not be tolerated Because this is such an important topic to our community I'm going to ask for 30 seconds eat 30 more seconds on the clock Please the the other part of this question Assistant chief jerry jones at the community want to know was an example of your experience addressing this type of situation. Sure Currently internal affairs reports directly to me as a number three person in charge of the department where I work at Las Vegas metro I wouldn't be sure that that is in place An example of that is I mean I've had to fire a number of officers. I've had to discipline a number of officers But I've also Sent officers for retraining We have to follow procedural justice as we deal with the department or with the officers and we have to follow it within our department I could give example and after example of disciplined officers But I think the most important thing is You have those things in place and as chief you make sure that everybody is following those those procedures and those policies And holding people accountable. Okay. Thank you very much assistant chef jones to you chief miller the same topic accountability Peter Drucker has has taught us that culture will eat strategy for breakfast and policy for lunch What's needed in this space is absolute crystalline direction set by the leadership of an organization that certain behaviors will not be tolerated What needs to be extended that idea are procedures and structures within sod an organization That ensures that police departments are doing exactly what they say they're doing In my police department We specifically have set up a compliance section that ensures that what we're doing with respect to the review of use of force With the route to the review of Internal audits and inspections are where we need to be doing and we're doing what we say we're doing When we have to find when we have situations where Forces being used an extensive review of the force needs to be undertaken to ensure That the policies that were in fact were followed if there are issues and retraining needs to take or maybe there's failings in policy Those things need to be figured out in those cases where there's been misconduct and the force have been excessive It is it's not tolerable It's not tolerable excessive force Take takes down everything every bit of trust that we're all talking about it erodes it so specifically When policies are violated and misconduct occurs Then officers need to be separated and held accountable We've unfortunately had to handle this in my police department Where we have disciplined officers and had to separate officers for excessive force And unfortunately with some of our systems and state laws those officers are put back to work Police officers come to work every day to serve the public But it's our responsibilities as leaders that we are holding ourselves accountable I'm not afraid to say that Having a monitor an external monitor the reports to this is the management of the city to ensure That the police department is doing what they say they're doing is a it's a good thing I think the idea needs to be extended but to answer the question specifically intensive review and outside and outside Um looking to the police department to make sure that the policies are in fact being policies The piece about uh being discourteous to the public Um I don't have a word for that. I can tell you what we did in carolton We came up with a mission statement that specifically tells officers what we expect them to do and how they expect to treat We expect them to treat the public We will proactively protect our community But we everyone we encounter we will treat with professionally Professionalism dignity and respect these ideals and values are sacrosanct. They're sacred and that comes from me the top And it's it's inculcated down into the organization Thank you so much chief miller to you chief nooks the question about accountability I find it extremely troubling and extremely Unfortunate that a a very small fraction of those who go out and serve every day come at acts that shine a negative light on the entire department, but that's that's the way it is It's unfortunate that we have so many officers doing so many great things every day But their work isn't necessarily seen because of the acts of a few One thing we have to be crystal clear on is the expectation Clarity has to proceed accountability. So we have to be absolutely clear first, but once we are We have to hold people accountable If we don't Then there's no reason to follow the rules one of the issues that came up from the panel of experts that reviewed our policies and procedures Was that we had good policies in place, but we weren't necessarily always following them. That's a problem That's something chief cross has addressed. That's something we will continue to address Something else they said is sometimes officers not only didn't de-escalate but seem to maybe escalate a situation once again unacceptable We asked or asked about excessive force and rudeness The fact of the matter is one often proceeds the other If an officer shows up and is rude There's more of a chance that that's going to turn into a use of force that wasn't necessary and let me tell you a success story we've had There was an officer through our standard mechanism of reviews of body cameras There was a concerning incident that happened. Luckily it did not result an excessive force, but it came close For No real reason he was rude to the person he was dealing with Well, that person got rude back. That's human nature And it got really close to maybe turning into a use of force. Luckily there was another officer on scene who stepped in Which was amazing first of all to see we have a duty to intervene We have a duty to intervene in situations like that. This officer did But what we did when we saw the concerning behavior, we pulled the officer out of patrol We put him in prescribed training At the police academy to retrain him on de-escalation On compassion on empathy on emotional intelligence We put him through some scenario based training And then when he went back out into the field He rode with the senior officer for a while He rode with someone who was able to keep an eye on him to help him out and to make sure The officer understood the training. So it wasn't just training in the released We made sure the training stuck and I'll be happy to report I've seen no other complaints or no other concerning behaviors out of that officer whatsoever That was a success Thank you very much chief nox to you chief swarington Thank you Kind of what everybody's already touched on again being last. Um, there has to be clear understanding of what our policies are And what our expectations are as a police department from our from our officers Um, you know as the panel of experts says we have great policies, but getting them to follow those policies So we have to be clear that those who don't follow the policies will be held accountable But I also look at case by case Is the misconduct just reckless and intentionally or was the conduct A mistake that we can retrain we can counsel and we can try to change the behavior of the officer Um, I think that's an important factor We have a discipline matrix in place and it matches the discipline with the conduct of the officer and that's how discipline is served And I think we also need to look at Educating our community on how our discipline process is In my position I was able to put in place the process for internal affairs And it's online available for you to kind of educate and see what our Our discipline is and how a case is investigated But I think it's important that the community members understand that process as well Because we follow local government and we follow general orders So sometimes when the discipline that we hand out doesn't match what your expectations That'll give you a better understanding of what guidelines we're following um rudeness Like cheek nil said it It could escalate something really quick to an excessive force and excessive force will not be tolerated and so We train we have communication classes we um How to better interact in stressful situations so these situations don't escalate um An example I would give a rudeness complaint where I was able to use a training I sat down with the officer And I said I want you to see the video from your body worn camera and look at your conduct and tell me how you feel about the Conduct You know and just that short time that we reviewed and we talked about he actually got it and he said you know What you're right this could have been worse And he accepted the discipline that was handed down to him, but that's Training sitting down with them and letting him see it from a different perspective Thank you. Thank you chief swearing jim chief bainbridge to you the question about accountability. Yes Simply put the public will know that uh, you're we're accountable through transparency We need to tell them We can be doing the best things the right things have the best policies Be the policies but unless that we show them and tell them this is what we're doing through transparency Then they'll never know it and so we absolutely have to be transparent um We unfortunately have had to let go of a lot of officers I've been under uh some that uh some chiefs that didn't and unfortunately that will fester and grow worse And it becomes a problem. We have body cameras now We have uh supervisors that review those body cameras If they see an officer being rude or cursing too much stop it right there Stop it right there and tell them the expectations of of the type of behavior that we need to have people will meet or see Expectations you just have to be engaged. You have to watch them and you have to set them You have to model them as well I feel like training is absolutely imperative But too often especially in big city departments. We don't train enough We can't lose these officers for eight hours going to the academy So what we found is that to keep it consecutive To train at roll calls say we're having a roll call of 10 people You have to have trainers on every shift that have been trained at the academy all across and all six of your stations And then after roll call they can say you and you Go train it's your day and you'll be there for an hour with basic type training on what to expect You can have de-escalation training in a scenario based environment You can do that consistently because the trainers are right there on each and every shift at each and other every station You can do Other types of training building searches things like that because oftentimes it's one and done you learn it in the academy And then you lose it And so you need to keep that consecutive your officers deserve it and so do your citizens So I feel like that's where policy meets practice is if it's consecutive Um, I just feel again in circling back We can't have officers out there that have no command of themselves that has to be stopped and they need to be held to account Thank you. Thank you chief ambridge And chief gay the final answer to this topic Thank you debora As it's been mentioned policies expectations. It's already been mentioned about culture um, sort of want to focus on the culture aspect is because We have to create a culture that of continued improvement You've you've got to Have a culture to where it's it's okay to To correct behavior and you have to have a department that is always wanting to improve Is that so often is supervisors sometimes? Don't want to hold someone accountable because it's a small thing It was a one-time thing Unfortunately the one-time thing turns into two and three And then as a department We have a responsibility to to get that person to the end of their career But if you just would have Held them accountable at a lower level. It may have never escalated or gotten to a higher level of a situation um In austin we've had police oversight since 2001 it has given us a level of Of transparency and trust and and and oversight into our process And has is holding us accountable And I think that's needed. I think that that's okay. That's that's the way that we do business um In talking about excessive force that derrick already said it it shouldn't be tolerated Excessive force in itself should not be tolerated I do think that you have to have policies And most excessive force situations you have to sort of look at the root cause of the officer and look at other incidents And usually that goes back to others that have talked about it as not dealing with de-escalation Should have never become a forced situation to begin with In austin we have a de-escalation policy. We hold officers accountable I have set on discipline hearings to where it is that all that has happened was a de-escalation That we have set measures and accountability measures to hold officers accountable that are Not following their their training specifically de-escalation There was an incident that were an officer the force in itself was legal It was something that was within policy, but I can tell you is that He used force in 24 seconds from making contact Is that no de-escalation techniques were used? And so that officer was held accountable for that you have to look at the whole incident holistically You also have to treat people with dignity and respect and in reference to the language piece. We have a policy to where It you can't curse you can't use foul language What is that going to get you? Is that you can use command and control techniques without Using certain types of language, which is only going to escalate situations. Thank you. All right. Thank you chief gay And now we move to our next topic and that is culture change As you all have noted and our community knows policing across the country is in the midst of change What is your experience with introducing cultural change to an organization? What changes do you believe are key to move the fort worth police forward? And what role does the community play? It's one question with kind of three parts What is your experience with introducing cultural change to an organization? What changes do you believe are key to moving the force in fort worth forward? And what role does the community play and this time chief miller will begin with you, sir So um the carolton police department has always been a very efficient and effective police department When I took the reins of the department, we were a very traditional base enforcement based police department But times were changing and sometimes that strategy you had a tendency to disengage us from our public So we had to change the entire culture of the police department from one that was focused on citations and arrest to one that was focused on community engagement and engaging with the community To solve substantive problems We went about this in a very meticulous way The first thing that we did was engage the community and we started sending the message that community engagement was everyone's job Every beat officer's job every civilians job Meeting the public where they were Trying to figure out what the substantive issues were that we could solve and then coming together in a collaborative way of doing that We started programs that focused on our youth We started a junior police academy that i'm sorry We started a pile program that focused on our elementary school age kids and a junior police academy focused on middle Middle school age kids to try to build and maintain trust in the community We focused on our hispanic community before we're so afraid of us because they every they thought every contact Was going in with the deportation To now we're having programs We have a program called unidos where the community is coming to our police department to fellowship with us And and we have built strong relationships We really weren't engaged with our african-american community and now that we are we have relationships with NAACP and several african-american sororities and fraternities that are stepping up and handling Mentorship of young african-americans How do we do it specifically is it became the direction of the police department said by me We talk about it my command staff talked about it and we have inculcated it into the entire community The change that needs to occur here is just as simple as that is we have to We have to model the behavior that we want to have our officers exhibit someone mentioned it earlier We need to reward the behavior that we want out of our police officers It's a very important thing and it can be done with with time And that would miss and we stay the course about what the mission of the police department is. Thank you Thank you chief miller to you chief nooks I love the the fact that this question starts with culture change And then the last part of the question brings the community in When really the community ought to be the first thing we talk about when we talk about culture change And that's the the culture change. I have pushed in our department Since I've been in leadership roles that allowed me to influence The work of the officers and it comes back to what I mentioned earlier We are not going to arrest our way out of crime I don't like hearing officers ever say the phrase. It's not my job If we're actually going to do something about the crime that's long lasting if we're going to change the culture And the way we deal with the citizens We have to understand that you know what if it's not our problem Who's is it if it's not us then who if we can't change everything it doesn't mean we can't change the things we should So the culture change i'm talking about is specifically that community engagement It's specifically listening to the community members We need to do everything we can to show the community our heart to show the community our commitment To show the community that we care but to do that we've got to show up We've got to if we want to be part of the community We have to be in the community The culture that we want to see within the fort worth police department is one where we all work together Where it's not unusual for an officer Instead of maybe just sitting in his car outside of the store because there's been burglaries in the area To get out and talk to someone To get out and have a positive interaction with the citizen And I think that's some of the things we could do more Something I would want to do as far as leading by example Much like cheap crows my plan would be to be out in the community as much as I possibly could He set a great example there and that's where I would plan to spend as much time as I possibly could So when we're talking about what role does the community play? They play a key role They play an absolute key role in it because if we are all working together If we're all rowing the boat instead of drilling holes in it and we're all rowing in the same direction We actually get things done Thank you Thank you chief nooks to your chief swearing during the question about culture change Okay, I think we start with culture change in the very beginning with our new officers As their recruits in the academy and one thing we've implemented is We have our community members come into the class while the officers are in training where the recruits are in training And they share their experience of what how they interacted with the fourth police officer being in a positive experience or a negative experience And what that does is it allows that new potential officer that recruit to see that one Split second of a negative interaction sets a tone for everything else to follow So that's one of the things um bringing them in to have one-on-one conversations sharing their experience and kind of seeing what the community members expectation of The officers that are policing their areas, you know We also try to incorporate a field trip Obviously covid has put a stop to some of our training and that's a field trip Where they can actually go out into the community to meet with some of the members and kind of hear their stories as well Instead of just a small group. We also had a piece about a volunteer An opportunity for them to participate in a food bank or something that gives back to the community And I think that's important, you know But we understand changing the culture of the recruits are future officers But what about the culture internally with our veteran officers? And so part of that is incorporating some of this training with them with our veteran officers as well And having them actually have speak to the community members when they come in during their training We do training every year and incorporating some of that training another piece is Leading by example like chief noke said we have to lead by example and and chief crawls had set that foundation for us But then it goes to the supervisors that are out there Supervising these young officers I think part of a new supervisors role is To also get some of this training and have the community interaction piece. So we're looking at Creating a new supervisor program. So you will go through the same thing the new recruits going through You'll have an interaction with a community member. You'll have a A field trip you'll go out to you'll have to do some community service And I think that's kind of a way to get back And we need the community. What is the community's role everything continue to be a part of our training program We invite you into our procedure Patrol procedures you train with our recruits and so you can see what's expected of them when they get out there. Thank you Thank you chief squarington chief vainbridge Yes, I I think that Culture change has got to be everybody coming together And again, I'll go back to relational policing. It's going to happen one interaction at a time There are certain things that you can do for instance You have a citizens police academy Bring it to the neighborhoods and begin with the one where we need to strengthen our ties with that community Actually, take it to them. Take amounted take everything that you can out there Take the scenario based incidents in a system so they can sit there and see what officers go through And develop that level of empathy with with one another and have a talk to one another It's very difficult for citizen police academies to make their way to the academy to hold those Those meetings and so forth everyone is very busy So we need to take it to them and need to foster those relationships so we can build trust again Every interaction one interaction at a time with our community There's other places where we can change our culture and that's no longer working in silos For those calls that we get repeatedly that are not crime related such as mental health work with our mental health Authority and work on several programs and and talk to the officers and how that benefits them They need to see because a lot of officers think that it's just mission creed. It's not that at all It's getting our our citizens in connection with those Services that they need the most and then it allows officers to then focus on crime Every time you invest one officer you should be getting full-time equivalents back as a result of that engagement and that collaboration I I feel that The community trust they they will see that it'll grow even if there it's not a Even if it's not a mental health type Issue with that community member they'll see that and they'll know that their police department is working Thinking of different programs very innovative programs so they can better meet the needs of that community I can go on and on with those programs But you see we can't work in silos and we need to meet our community where they're at and start with those communities That have an issue with trust with us. Thank you. Thank you chief Bainbridge for you chief gay Thank you Deborah A culture change that I Help to implement was the advancement of community policing, but I'm really going to go another direction And that's a culture change that i'm currently working on with the police department And that is a culture that has an understanding towards diversity equity and inclusion I think that is so important in today's environment Is that there needs to be a zero tolerance for any forms of discrimination? or harassment I We have put our leadership team through through training to broaden our lens from anything from undoing racism To groundwater analysis working with consultants to really Dive in to looking at the culture of of our agency. We've surveyed our agencies We've we've talked to community members and our officers and I can tell you is that We do need to look at our culture and change But we can't do that until we acknowledge that there's a problem That that it's there. It's something that we have to expose our Department to our officers to is that I can tell you is that I sat in in a chair many many Years ago and said, you know, it's them. It's not me But I can tell you through education through trying to understand It's it's trying to get deeper and trying to understand other people's experiences And if you can do that and really look and have dialogue and I'm talking about Dialogue that's difficult but necessary with communities of color It is is important to create spaces so you can have that dialogue I We've all talked about and we put our officers through fair and impartial policing We put them through a biospace policing all the things that You would check the box for but it's going to take more than that It's going to take the community and the police departments working together We have an equity office. We've worked together with the equity office We are putting an equity action plan together in order to work together with a community to address the culture That is that is needed within our agency. Thank you. Thank you chief gate and finally to you chef junks Thank you very much. So the first first part of the question was what experience do I have? In cultural change bringing cultural change to an organization so as a commander A few years ago. We were seeing an increase in our use of force an increase in our officer involved shootings And we knew we had to do something about it so In a proactive way we brought in the department of justice and the centers for naval analysis And we participated in a collaborative reform effort To tell us what we needed to do to fix this problem And at the time there were 75 recommendations That were put in place through that collaborative reform Over the next year and a half. We instituted every single one of those Collaborative reform changes 75 of them at that time it included duty to intervene Deescalation Sanctity of life. So all of those elements I've led through I've put those into policy and I've overseen The training that was instituted for officers to be sure that that they understand that And they know what's expected of them when they go out on the street with respect to use of force and how to treat the public Once we instituted the changes We also established a use of force review board that I currently chair We look at every officer involved shooting with this use of force review board That has four members of the community on there and these are voting members of the community They have a say in whether or not that use of force that the officers use Was justifiable and if it was necessary and those are two different distinct things being justifiable and being necessary So that is the experience that I have with bringing cultural change to a major metropolitan police department The second part of that question and I'll do this quickly is what changes are needed For moving forward We need to listen to the community and more importantly we need to listen to our critics They will tell us when we're getting it wrong. It's easy to listen to people that agree with us It's easy to sit down at the table when we know we're going to have a peaceful Pleasant conversation, but that's not where we need to be Right now we need to be sitting at the table with our biggest critics and truly listening to them And lastly the third part of that question. What role does the community play? The community has to be willing to come forward and tell us when we're getting it wrong Thank you. Thank you sheriff jones Okay, moving down to a topic number five. How y'all doing good? You got anybody need a new fresh water bottle? You're okay. All right. All right. Here we go topic number five Deals with officer recruitment officer morale and support This is two questions We'll ask you one the first one and then we'll go and ask you the second one. That's probably the best way to do it Because change in any organization is difficult How do you implement change without negatively impacting officer morale? Because change in any organization is difficult. How do you implement change without negatively impacting officer morale? And chief notes. We start with you Something I think is universal for people regardless of what their profession is they they want to be heard They want to be understood I think the best way to not negatively affect morale with any change is to involve the officers in the change Just like we need to reach out to the community If there's going to be anything done in the community, we need to reach within our own department as well It's much easier to push a program forward If a leader takes the time to get by in Before actually flipping the switch to make the program happen We have officers who do their duty Respectfully honorably every day If we're going to change the way they do their job I think it is incumbent upon upon us as leaders to do what we have to do to Let them know about the change And whenever and wherever possible let them have a say We may not agree But at least they're heard And you said there was a second part to that question. Yes, sir. Second part. Um Yes, the second part. We had allotted two minutes for the first question But if you want to go into the second, we might as well Okay, the second part police departments and law enforcement agencies in tarant county as well as across texas Are finding it very difficult to attract qualified applicants for police officer positions Talk about your philosophy and your techniques relating to recruitment and retention of law enforcement personnel that reflect the community One thing we know in Fort Worth right now is the makeup of our department Does not reflect the makeup of the community When you have 64 of the officers are Caucasian versus 39 of the city's population. It doesn't match up When you have 35 of the population that's Hispanic, but only about 21 within the department That doesn't match up If you got about 19 of your population that's african-american, but only about 10 represent the officers in your department That doesn't match up something that I hear people in law enforcement say frequently is well, we tried But the people we're trying to reach the diversity we're wanting they don't want the job That's an excuse If there's a problem with that we need to do everything we can to possibly fix it and the way I believe we fix that is the same way We deal with Quality of life issues the same way we deal with crime issues and communities We go to the community We can't expect to just show up at an hbcu Or show up in a Hispanic community that may not have a lot of trust in the police department Sit down a nice table with a banner hand out literature and expect people to flock to us That's not going to happen. We have to be realistic about it What I propose is we actually make the community a part of the process If you look at the most successful companies in private industry to do the best at recruiting diversity They find out what that target audience wants They find out how to attract that target audience They find out what it takes because they find out from their own perspective What we need to be doing to attract them So I think we bring in community members. We bring in a panel who tells us someone who has a voice for the community It says this is what you're doing wrong This is what you could do right and then We build a strong enough relationship with that panel did those trusted community members go with us in the community So when we sit down with that pretty table and banner and hand out those nice pamphlets It's not just an officer sitting there. There's a trusted member of the community sitting right beside us And I will guarantee you The people that walk up and look at the tables And they see a lot of police officers and in our table with the community representing them At the table beside us That's when people flock to our table Thank you. Thank you chief nox I'm going to just Ask a procedural question here when we had timed out for this this was we had Indicated you would get each two minutes for each part of this question chief nox was comfortable and handling them both Is everybody else handling both you feel like you need a little extra time to Our timekeeper will be okay with that. All right So this is the topic of officer recruitment officer morale and support How do you implement change without negatively impacting officer morale? And also, what is your philosophy and techniques relating to recruitment and retention of law enforcement personnel that reflect the community? And now to you chief's ranger. Okay. Thank you. I'll start with the recruitment piece You know as chief nox pointed out that our police department doesn't mirror the city And we're aware of that. So I actually um Started a campaign to try to target women and minorities in our community and I started it in 2019 Um And I started it by myself. I'm not one that says me me me but actually I did this by myself And so I had them give me the numbers we had a civil service exam and the numbers were nowhere near where we needed them to be So I asked hr. I said can you pull those numbers? Can you give me the not only the numbers the names the phone numbers the emails of the applicants that are interested in taking the test because I'm going to call them or email them and encourage them to show up and so For five days I made phone calls and I got with our media pro team and I said look I need you to create some memes or some videos to push out And it was called be the change in your community because it was around that time that people were Talking about they wanted to see change the police department. So I came up with be the change in your community And it was an aggressive recruiting campaign for specifically for women and minority applicants so um Getting them to actually sign up and take the test is one part but getting them to show up and actually take the test As the other so there I made phone calls. I sent emails and we continued with this campaign. So we're doing it right now again Um This time I have help doing it. It's not just me doing it and we've created I don't know if you follow since social media But look at all the videos and all the memes and all the things we're trying we also spent money on advertising Radio stations College newspapers anything we could do to get the message out. I haven't used utilized our mac program our Citizens on patrol. I mean we sent the word out as much as we could the NAACP. I sent them a flyer Again trying to get help to recruit minority applicants Today today I checked we have over 1400 applicants and they exactly mirror what our city is right now So the next piece of that is again getting on that phone and sending emails and making a personal connection a personal call And I've had the poas on board. They're going to help me do this and and Recruiting is a passion of mine and I will continue until the city mirrors until our department mirrors our city For the morale and support. Um, I think kind of what chief nox had already mentioned we have to Support our officers as transparent as we're being with the community. We need to make sure we're doing that internally as well with our officers We want them to know that we appreciate the job that they're doing, you know, um, one of the things is recognizing them. We do, um audits, um to ensure their in compliance with body worn camera or Use of force or when we're reviewing reports and when we notice good behavior We need to showcase that and and let their chain of command know they're doing a good thing So I think we're rewarding the behavior Let's see implementing change We need to implement change Yes, involving the officers if it's something that's going to affect their bureau or their unit We definitely need to try to include them in and And when it's not feasible tell them why not why weren't why not we weren't discussing the policy change with them, you know, um They're the ones who do that job. They know what they need to do that job to be successful. So I think including them is how we get change and how um without reducing morale or um, any others. Thank you. All right Thank you chief's margin for you chief members Uh regarding the morale, um, it's already been stated too often. Um, we as command staff We don't explain the reasons why we're doing things Just as we need to be transparent has been stated, uh with the community we have to with our officers Too often we'll fill in the blanks with what we don't know is something negative And uh, and we as and as police officers the worst at that And so you have to go out there and talk to them. Don't be a stranger to those roll calls Talk to them about the reason for the policy bring them into committees You can bring them in like for instance your early warning system could be a committee base when you have an officer That's troubled and you're trying to get them in line with policy Uh in practice you can have a committee that this this case would go to That uh has a representative from every rank involved including the union bring them in because Unless they're involved with that then they'll see that it's fair Like our citizens we need to know that uh that we're fair and that our officers are fair They need to see that command staff is fair Morale and productivity are rarely inversed. They will they will adjust very quickly We have got to make sure that they understand why we're doing that and then they'll understand We're very reasonable. We just have to know the reasons behind things and that is really you have to avail yourself It has to be tireless, but that's how you bring a department up together And just to involve them all including including the union Regarding the recruiting I think Fort Worth is to be commended Julie on the um be the change campaign It has increased your minority and women applicants and I think it's wonderful You could also use mentorships Um with officers that are currently here because a lot of people don't realize and don't know myself included When someone says well, you need to be a police officer I thought really me and so I started looking into it and it was a wonderful career And it has been the most intrinsically rewarding career I could possibly have Uh and I think that that when you're talking to have when you have an officer talking to someone else and encouraging them That they can apply that absolutely does help We've had that and it works and they even follow that Through their cadet and their first year of training that they have that same mentor You can talk to you can look at schools and talk to them explore programs are great at that because these these our little ones are Are basically raised in knowing our policies and knowing how we do things and we have a lot of uh explorers that are now cadets You can go to universities Target radio stations and start talking to the public where you want to recruit and that's with your minorities again And your females let them know that they can let them know that they're invited and avail yourself that really works But be the change is also a great program. Thank you chief mainbridge for you chief gay Thank you. Deborah. I'm going to sort of combine the the change with the retention Or the morale because I believe they sort of go together somewhat One is that I will tell you that police officers don't like change And they don't like the way things are so Change is going to happen a progressive agency is there will always be change But as we've talked about with the community is you have to have trust and you have to have collaboration You have to do the same thing Inside your own organization You have to have your officers believe that they are going to be part of The solutions that you're going to come up with Wendy sort of talked about Having them part of your policies. I can tell you about two years ago We have a policy committee that actually looks at all our policies And every now and then it comes back that an officer says Hey, did you think about this and then we've got to to redo it? And so we just said you know what we need to ensure that there are People from all ranks that are vetting our policies and so we've we've changed that We've made them part of the process That's an example and the retention aspect is that if you have good morale if you have good collaboration and your officers trust that You really care for them and it's all about officer wellness Is that your organization? Your men and women need to know that you care that you're looking out for their their mental Their their spiritual and their physical well-being and if they believe that Then their morale is going to be high and they're going to show up every day for you And they're going to give their best to you with their with their service hours that they came onto this department about And I will transition to the the the applicant part That is that is a a piece that we've all given great ideas marketing plans. We actually Realized a few years ago that that cops aren't the best at coming up with marketing plans So we actually hired an expert that we brought on to sort of help us with and I think neil talked about targeting audiences There's there's people there's ways to do that that you can target the right people to to attract the people into your organization You also have to put real and bold letters is that what you tolerate as and what you don't tolerate as a department So those coming in is like I want to be part of that department Their department that doesn't tolerate Discrimination or harassment or whatever it may be But they know what what kind of culture that you have in your organization Is that if we're building trust and legitimacy in our communities then our communities are going to want to be part Of the department that is is part of their community. I will give you an example is that we met with the Our black officers association and sort of talked about this specific issue And I can tell you right now is that they said you do know that we have African-americans that are putting in for the department But they're not making it through And so the question is why not and then we started looking at that further and looking at the root causes And there were barriers that not by the t-cold not by the state agencies But our own barriers that we had as an agency of disqualifiers that was disqualifying a large portion of african-americans And it's not lowering standards. It's just standards that have been set for centuries of and one example is Is traffic tickets you get a couple track of traffic tickets you're disqualified Well, we know if you look at the data that african-americans are disproportionately stopped So they're they may have a larger number of traffic stops Or or police interactions. So you really have to look deeper at the root causes of why People are not making it through to become the police officers. It's not just about the recruitment It's about our processes that we have in place that is creating barriers for them to actually get on Thank you very much. Thank you chief gay for you sheriff jones Thank you very much So the first part of the question how do I implement change without negatively impacting officer morale and it's been said Accurately that you get feedback, but I think more importantly When a leader realizes what change needs to be made he sets that vision And from that vision he gets input and feedback From those around him as to how we accomplish that vision. What it where are we trying to get to and have them Participate or even completely come up with the answer of how we get there so As my colleagues have said feedback From those who are going to be impacted by that change As a leader set that vision and then allow them to determine the path to accomplishing that vision and change So with respect to Recruiting and retention and having our police department reflect what our community looks like As the commander of hr Back in 2016 2017 with las vegas metro. We were going through the same thing. We Had lower numbers of diversity and it did not reflect the community of las vegas that we served and so Uh, as troi had mentioned earlier, we knew that that we weren't the ones to come up with these campaigns. So there's a very Well-known marketing firm in las vegas called r and r firm And they're the ones that came up with the what happens in vegas stays in vegas So we went to them as a private sector partner. We knew we couldn't afford them The city didn't have the money for it And they offered to do the work for us pro bono Now, I don't know any marketing firms in the dallas fort worth area, but i'm sure there are some who would be willing to do that Willing to advance the brand of the fort worth police department from that professional perspective Uh and rebrand it to where We get a whole other generation a whole other Segment of the population that wants to come to work as police officers and serve this community for fort worth police department Another thing that we did and what I think is very important is we looked at when we were giving the test And we realized that we were giving all of our tests And all of our elements of of the process Monday through friday 8 a.m. To 5 p.m. Well, what are most of the people doing when That we're trying to recruit during that time frame. They're working. They have to provide for their families And so we changed course and we realized that we can't make it convenient for us as a police department We have to make it convenient for the applicant many of the people that we were trying to recruit are in jobs that Where the benefits are not there. They don't have time off. They can't take time off They're caring for their families They can't miss work because they need that money to feed their families But we knew that those people had life experience That they could bring to the department and serve the community So we revamped when we tested and where we tested we brought our testing process to their community During the weekends on saturdays on sundays Adjusted to where we could recruit the people that we were we're trying to get on the department And then lastly, I would say the most important thing is is as we start to build Legitimacy within our communities and we start to build trust within our communities. We rely upon family members. We rely upon Community leaders. We rely upon community groups To push those applicants towards us to have them tell the young men and women in this city and around this city You would make a fine police officer because you can Instantly have legitimacy within this community. So we use them force multiplier as our recruiters and Another thing that's very important a lot of professional teams around the Dallas Fort Worth area A lot of people who can walk into these communities that we're trying to recruit diversity from who have built in legitimacy athletes Entertainers We get them on board. There's many of them that are speaking out right now about policing How we're doing it wrong the changes we need to make in policing We use them to help us get the right people and get the right young men and women into our police department Thank you. Sheriff Jones and for you with respect to change Simon Sinek wrote a book and it's titled starting with why and that's how You can you can make change in an organization is Understand what your values are and the importance of the change that needs to occur And then start with talking to the troops about why the change is needed Then you can solicit the opinions from your rank and file like many people have said they're the ones doing the job So you express to them what the change needs to be and you solicit their opinions about How the change needs to occur and bring them along in the change You can have an impact come around now. We all know those of us who carry the badge Know that you can give a cop a hundred dollar bill that he's going to complain that is wrinkled Because cops don't like change But the fact of the matter is you can bring them along in a collaborative way in order to make change Recruiting I'm very proud to say in the carolton police department that our african-american population is eight percent and our african-american officers Was eight percent We spend a lot of time and focus recruiting. We do go to historically black universities We do try to grow our own through programs like forward has a cadet program Where we're in this and we're trying to use our explore program and trying to show young people that law enforcement is a noble profession That should be undertaken by many many people But in order to do that we have to show them that our hearts in the past a recruiting video Everybody's talking about marketing in the past a recruiting video was a bunch of swat guys jumping off a truck shooting guns repelling off buildings In today's world kids don't want to see that kids want to serve the community So we've had to pivot we've changed you go to our website and look at our recruiting video You'll see the heart of our department and what we find is people want to come to work for us When we asked people at our test, why did you test here? Because by the way We're in competition with every other law enforcement agency in the dallas fourth area trying to recruit Good viable candidates when we asked them. Why did you come test here? They tell us because of their reputation of the police department It's the work like we were talking about earlier. We're going to beat you up with the word trust But trust is the key when we have trust in the community We have shared values that are understood and exhibited by our cops We have a reputation that proceeds us and people want to become part of that We employ things like point my click Google search when you search we pay so if you search wins the test It's it's gone. I shouldn't be giving this out It's a trade trade secret. It's okay It you know It sends you to our site because we're trying to target a certain type of person to be a police officer in our city All those strategies are effective All those strategies have employed properly. You can make gains in this space I learned today that I don't know if it's true or not that the four police department only has one recruiter I think we can add I think you can add to that and doing recruiting in an intentional manner And really really have an impact because I firmly believe that our police departments ought to look like The communities that we serve The other thing we have to realize is you can't just put a one-size-fits-all in the community For example in the city of carolton. We have a large korean population about 14 percenters of our population is asian And recruiting in this community is much much different than recruiting african-americans And the korean community we have to recruit the parents We have to show the parents that law enforcement is a noble profession. So knowing Understanding the terrain that you're on having a vision this crystalline that you understand Will help you recruit and will help you make gains in those areas and will may help you make your police department Look like your community. Thank you. Thank you so much chief Miller For those of you in the room and those of you watching us virtually We're going a little bit longer than what we'd intended the conversation is very important As j shop indicated the hiring of a police chief is one of the most important decisions I want to let you know we have one more question that we're going to take take our candidates through again from The audience and then we'll wrap up. All right. So this time we'll start with chief swearing jim This question has to do with police monitor civilian oversight, which many of you have already mentioned As you know the city of fort worth in the past year implemented a civilian office of police monitor What are your thoughts on working with a civilian police monitor or an oversight board? Okay, thank you The work we've done with the police monitor has been phenomenal She's been great to work with we review policies. Um, we discuss internal affairs cases discipline and um I support it. I support with what kim neal is bringing to the table. Um, she has provided excellent input and and Coincidentally the same input that is being provided by the panel of experts And so when she points something out, we were able to review our policies and we recognize our own deficiencies and we make the changes ourselves I think the program that she's putting together now or or the committee that she's putting together now about the policy civilian policy review committee is an excellent start It's letting the citizens get An understanding and actually to be able to review our policies and procedures and I think that's a good way to start So I support what she's doing and I also know as for a civilian Oversight if that's the direction that the city and the department is going to head I think kim neal will make sure that that program is tailored to fit for worth Thank you. Okay. Thank you chief swearing jim Now we work our way around the table to your chief main bridge. Yes, ma'am I think that Iron sharpens iron. I really think that having outside perspective A lot of the community voice coming with it of your you have a very kim nil is Respected she's reasonable and she works with you. I I believe that I I know I wouldn't have a problem with that at all Again, I like perspective. I like audits. I I think that when we're building policy for example It's always good. Like we said earlier even to get the officer's perspective It's also important to get outside perspective and having someone come through that lens and help us shape and guide that I think it's wonderful. I don't have a problem with that at all. I think it makes us a better city a better city department And we serve our community better for it regarding oversight boards same thing I work in a city. We have an oversight of our iad cases and it's fine They look at we have a civilian board that looks at all of our shootings anything regarding use of force as well as Any incidents that result in a serious bodily injury or anything that the chief wants them to look at And it runs smoothly. Again, you get an outside perspective of of what's going on It certainly helps you stay closer to the community Those are community volunteers that are on that board and so they're from the community and again It's transparency. It's opening up all of these cases. So they'll know that we take this seriously So I think it's very important on both fronts and I and I think it's great Thank you. Chief Bainbridge chief gay. Thank you. Uh, I believe it's absolutely necessary I have been part of oversight Since 2001 so probably Around 20 years of my career. I have been a part of oversight. So I I just think it's uh, it's it's it's natural to me For them to be oversight. It provides the necessary accountability and transparency But I also think that We've built relationships with our with our police monitor the the monitor will will bring a different lens Into to our world to allow us to see things a little bit differently She has helped us with the current monitor has helped us look at policies and really Shed light into areas that that uh, that that we weren't aware of sometimes we get in this police lens and And and we don't recognize all the the traps or the areas that we need to to really change We have had oversight actually we had citizen review board and For many years and and then we went without a contract and then I actually set on a committee To really look at the new police oversight and how that was going to take place in 2018 And its current form and we just instituted a new citizens review board Which is really looking at critical incidents like like wendy talked about as well as looking at our policies So I absolutely support it. I think it's uh needed But also I think it helps to build community trust and and I know we keep saying the the part with trust But they know our department and I can tell you she's a biggest One of our biggest advocates to really when community members come and talk about Hey, this this happened. Why why did this happen? I want to complain and they can educate the community and say Well, well here is the policies and procedures and here is what they follow So they can also be an added a force multiplier to our agency to really Be an advocate for our police department. Thank you. All right sheriff jones Thank you One of the six pillars of president obama's 21st century policing task force is policy and oversight So if we're going to say in policing that we are following the models That are put forth, uh, we have to have oversight within our department Um Like troyes department in austin los vegas metropolitan police department has had a citizens review board oversight for 20 years We instituted it in 2000 And it got fully up and running in 2001 And one thing that's important to point out about our citizens review board is that they have subpoena powers So they can subpoena officers to come in And make statements in the inquiries that they are conducting It's very important that that takes place. Otherwise, uh, it's pretty much fruitless It's not foreign to me. Uh, in fact, it would be foreign to me to not have oversight And so I fully support, uh, outside oversight. I fully support, um, citizens, uh, review board That is something that that I believe has to happen. Uh, in this age In policing and to help, uh, to help increase legitimacy with our public Uh, as I stated before, I chair a board that also has four citizens who sit on that board and have full voting rights With respect to use of force and tactical reviews of a critical incidence. So, um I obviously support it. I work in it every single day Uh, I work with our citizens review board, uh, and I obviously work on the use of force board Where citizens have complete and total say and representation In how our police department operates Thank you. Sheriff Jones chief miller I'll I'll simply say that i'm a operative opponent of of, uh, the monitor and auditor. I think that I mentioned it earlier We need to in order to build and maintain trust We need to make sure that our words are consistent with our deeds And if we're telling the public that we're holding people accountable It only makes sense that we have an external review of our policies and processes Like I mentioned before we have in my department a compliance manager Now this person reports to the office of the chief of police But you know, it would have even more force and show the public more commitment if the person was Uh reporting to someone outside of the police department Recently I asked the compliance manager. I noticed that there was a pattern of practice Case and Lubbock with respect to how they hire and I had our compliance manager look into our hiring processes Make sure that how we're hiring is is the correct way and we're of doing things the proper way And we found that there were some issues that we needed to fix We needed to work with our our human resources in order to make sure that We fixed these problems and we we're doing that So we would not have had that if we didn't have the ability for someone to focus in on our police department to show us To make sure that our words are consistent with our deeds. So this is uh any progressive police department in america Um, it should be open to these ideals and should be open to this level of collaboration with the community Thank you. Thank you chief miller for you chief nox Transparency and accountability. So those are two of the words We have heard from the community over and over again And we have heard what the community said Uh police monitor and civilian oversight is set up for just a purpose We have had a good working relationship with the police monitor kim neal She has assisted us with uh some policy changes Recommendations on things that needed to be done that actually did align perfectly with what we saw from the panel of experts She has done a great job assisting us within community engagement even in the time of covid When we can't necessarily meet like this and even when we do it's like this We've been able to meet digitally even in breakout sessions because of forums That miss neal set up across the community and one thing a lot of people probably do not realize We actually have a representative from the office of the police oversight monitor who sits in our use of force review board It's not just police officers looking at what we're doing We actually have someone from kim neal's office That is in there to add an extra layer a layer of accountability and an extra layer of transparency I don't think it's really a question of whether we get civilian oversight and foreworth I believe it's a question of whether or not the forward police department is a part of the process We can try to stand our ground and be stubborn and pushback or we can be part of it I choose to be part of it If there is a system that's going to be put in place, I think it behooves us to be at the table when it's designed We have review models investigate the models auditor monitor models There are a lot of hybrid models that are actually in place in different agencies across The country and it seems to me and for worth. We don't need to take necessarily a model that's Just a cookie cutter replica of what we see somewhere else Personally, I trust Kim neal to get out into the community to find what the city of Fort Worth needs And design a model that will work for all of us All right, thank you so much chief nooks and that takes us through The big topics that were submitted under the community questions. Thank you so much. You all have had an extremely long day I know we appreciate your time and your energy and your mental power to Answer these very important questions that our community wants to know We have one more for you It is your closing statement I want to know When you do have time for a hobby, what is it? Just kidding. You can answer that if you want, but actually your closing statement is What makes you the best choice for this position? You've given many answers But you know, everybody says what's your elevator speech? Why are you the one we need to hire? And that's what we want to hear our timer will put you at one minute for this And if you do want to answer the hobby question, that's okay and chief swerangid you're closest to that microphone at the end So that's where we're start Okay, I think what makes me best for this position. I have a servant heart. I'm genuine You know when I try to see the good in all people, you know, I believe in second chance and helping those in need I think what our department or city needs right now Is rebuilding the trust with the community And I think I'm the person that can bridge that gap along with other officers in our department You know, I think a lot of times the community sees us as Enforcers, they don't see us as true members of the community or just as average people Um, I think I can bridge the gap with officers because we come from similar backgrounds or the very Background and the very community that we're trying to rebuild that trust with You know, I think um, we can use this personal connection and I'll use my own personal I'd mentioned before I come from a home from a single parent home young mother with two kids Followed nerf footsteps got pregnant at a young age dropped out of school and had to rely on government aid Because of decisions I made as a young adult And I think a lot of times when the community members say we don't we haven't walked in their shoes Or we don't know the struggle I can honestly I have and I do and I think I'd like to use that as a personal connection to build the trust with the community And gain that trust I think again you need to look at what does the department need right now in the city And I think it's having the people skills to be able to connect with the community members that we serve And my hobby oh, yes eating Which you probably will do right after this is over. All right chief notes I think it's important to have somebody At the top of the organization when I say top not because they're the best position Because it's the best person because they need to take a leadership role We need to take someone who recognizes the situation. We are in right now for what it is We can look at it as a negative time in our country in our city in our department Or we can look at it as an opportunity for some of the most amazing change We've seen in this city and in law enforcement and policing in general We have an opportunity to take a city that I believe is better positioned than any other similarly sized city To be a model for other agencies across the country and how we engage with the community How we support our officers How the health wellness and resiliency of not only our own agency, but the people we serve is a top priority for us We have to be the agency that goes out there and makes a difference Not just their traditional policing methods But by showcasing the amazing work our officers do every single day to serve the citizens of Fort Worth And if you're given the opportunity I would love to have a chance to lead my Fort Worth family in that effort. Thank you Thank you so much chief notes chief miller I've had experience of changing the culture of a police department Having the having the experience of instilling a community engagement philosophy into a police department Effective crime suppression tactics deployed Effective hiring practices and collaborating on the regional and state level with partners here in the area I've sat in the number one chair I understand What it's like to be the executive the top executive of a larger organization And I understand what it takes to run this police department I'll tell you I'll leave you with this because my time is running short There's one thing that you will find in every family every organization Every school every church that if you remove it it will fail and that is trust Conversely if we can leverage trust Prosperity and growth will occur And that's what needs to happen. I've done it. I've sat in that chair I'm from this town. This is my hometown and my heart is here in Fort Worth And I would love to be the chief of police here. Thank you. Thank you chief miller chef jones Well, thank you There's no doubt in my mind that each one of my fellow candidates knows the issues at hand They've represented that up here and said it very well They each know what needs to be done in our cities across the nation They each know what we have to do is a police department What sets me apart is I have led through that change I have a proven track record of police reform I've been proven track record of being able to execute Police reform is not easy, but I've been through it We went through it several years ago and it's not a one and done Once you start reform you have to continually change to meet the demands And and what the public expects of the police department So with that I'll say this That it Fort Worth needs a leader in its police department who has that experience Who's led through that collaborative change Who's listened to the communities and who has a track record of putting recommendations in place To better our communities and to push this police department forward. Thank you. Thank you sheriff jones chief gay Thank you so much for Spending time tonight. I wanted to thank you for being part of this process I am And have always been a change agent a reformer somebody who brings my experience to you Which I think will be an asset to the fort worth team I Have the ability to bring people together has been talked about already about Just collaboration and trust which is needed, which is the key I have a work ethic that I will work hard for you. I work hard for the department And I will work hard for the the fort worth team Together because once again, we cannot do this alone. It takes a team It does take a leader and I want to be that leader, but I recognize that There are many people that need to be Side by side working together in collaboratively. Thank you. Thank you chief gay and chief bainbridge Yes, mel. Well, I first want to say that it is a privilege to be up here with these finalists Think a lot of each and every one of them and I think the city has a very difficult job I believe that chief cross is leaving behind a very good department. So thank you for your service I want to say that I feel in my 29 years career I've been involved with a lot of the programs either creating them or being involved with them That you want to bring to fort worth. I've been involved with several mental health programs to Divert some of these calls many of these calls and these folks that need other types of services other than law enforcement Away into the mental health authority That changes lives I've been involved with the citizens review board with our our department as well as working with the citizenry To prevent crime and to address problematic Issues in their communities and aren't necessarily crime related, but maybe more of a nuisance type related I've been working with that in that capacity for several years I believe in uh data driven Intelligence to look at crime Both violent and nonviolent crime and I believe in these programs And I'm constantly looking at the success of these programs to make sure that they are indeed working Again many times we can say well, we put in a government's really bad about this We'll start programs and then they won't they won't track them To ensure its success and I believe that's what we owe our citizens So again, I'd like to close by saying it's a it's a profound privilege to be in law enforcement It Truly is a privilege serving our citizens and working with our officers. Thank you so much Thank you chief main bridge That brings us to the conclusion of tonight's community forum You have gotten a chance to get to know a little bit about the six finalists for the job of police chief support worth Thank you so much for being in this room tonight. Thank you for joining us through the virtual channels The interview process will continue And ultimately decision will be made by the city manager david cook You heard j choppa say that if you have feedback something that you want to share Continue to use the website that you use to submit the questions I know the city manager's team would love to hear your input Once again, can we please a round of applause for our finalist chief wendy bainbridge chief chorey gray assistant sheriff christ jones chief derrick miller chief neil noakes and chief julie swarington Thank you so much. I think your day is officially done for you to get up and do it all again tomorrow in a different form Good night, everyone. Have a safe evening