Fort Worth Police Department Strategic Plan
Staffing Models/Workload Analysis According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2015) population estimate, the population of the City of Fort Worth is 833,319. The FWPD provides full service to approximately 333 square miles (excluding approximately 20 square miles of limited purpose annexation areas that do not receive full city services). Since 2014, FWPD has responded to approximately 588,000 calls for service requiring approximately 821,100 hours of officer time. FWPD’s authorized positions include 1,635 sworn personnel and 461 civilian personnel. The 2017-2021 Strategic Plan recommends solutions to staffing challenges in the coming years that factors variables such as population, enlarged geographic service area, and the realistic potential for 446 retirements by 2021. To ensure adequate staffing, it is necessary to accelerate and expand recruitment, training, and promotion through the ranks. The first step is to determine staffing needs over the next five years using proven staffing models and methodologies shared among policing agencies to determine minimum required levels. As a top-twenty agency, there is an additional factor that requires quantification, how FWPD expects to meet community expectations by providing a full spectrum of policing services using fiscally responsible methods to determine optimal staffing and deployment practices. In order to understand the importance of maintaining the appropriate staffing levels, the reader must first understand the measurements used by FWPD to assess staffing, and the variables used to ensure the department maintains the appropriate service-orientation and minimum staffing strategies in an increasingly dynamic environment. In 2014, the City of Fort Worth engaged the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to conduct a department wide staffing study. PERF is a leading research agency founded in 1976 that provides management services, technical assistance, and executive-level education to support law enforcement agencies. The study made recommendations regarding optimal patrol, investigative, and support staffing levels. Analysts in the PERF report examined current and future staffing needs, and PERF researchers presented their findings in an October 2014 report. PERF used information gleaned during several on-site visits and interviews with sworn and civilian personnel from nearly all components of the department to identify strengths and weaknesses of FWPD and provided recommendations on how to improve service delivery to meet the needs of the citizens of Fort Worth. The study provided guidance as the organization works to meet staffing challenges while continuing to provide quality police service. The analysis and methodology used to calculate optimal patrol levels in the PERF study were duplicated in 2015 to analyze the additional staff needed for FWPD to create a sixth patrol division. Fort Worth has been one of the fastest growing large cities for the last fifteen years and the majority of that growth has been north of Loop 820. This growth has placed increased pressure on the North Patrol Division, an area covering 125.7 square miles and serving a population of approximately 300,000. To alleviate growth related pressures in that area, FWPD recommended the addition of a sixth patrol division. 2014 PERF Study
How Growth Affects the Fort Worth Police Department
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