Fort Worth Police Department Strategic Plan
data. To accomplish this end, the Real Time Crime Center monitors crime hot spots in Fort Worth 24 hours a day to provide reliable data to command staff and field personnel. Evidence-based policing is an approach to policing that utilizes scientific research as a critical component to make tactical and policy decisions. According to the Police Foundation (Sherman, 1998) 1 , “doing research is not enough…Proactive efforts are required to push accumulated research evidence into practice through national community guidelines.” The Police Foundation (Sherman, 1998) also states, “of all the ideas in policing, one stands out as the most powerful choice for change: police practices should be based on scientific evidence about what works best.” The crux of evidence-based policing is how well a department converts research into actionable criminal justice practice. FWPD proactively determines ways to utilize evidence-based policing as demonstrated by the implementation of aspects of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing Report into its promotional process in May 2015. The report, described in the next section, includes six pillars that aim to focus on policing problems comprehensively and provide benefits to the community and police department. Additionally, Fort Worth is one of six pilot cities selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Justice-National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice Program. The National Initiative is a three-year program overseen by the Department of Justice and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The mission of the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice is to improve relationships and increase trust between communities and the criminal justice system. The following sections describe each program in detail. President’s Task Force on 21 st Century Policing Initiative
On December 18, 2014, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the President’s Task Force on 21 st Century Policing. The Task Force members sought expertise from stakeholders and input from the public to identify best practices and make recommendations to the President. On May 18, 2015, the Task Force released the final report nationwide. The philosophical foundation for the Task Force on 21 st Century Policing is to build trust between citizens and officers so that all components of a community are treating one another fairly and justly and are invested in maintaining public safety in an atmosphere of mutual respect. There are 6 pillars to follow in order to implement the initiative.
Pillar One: Building Trust and Legitimacy – Law enforcement cannot build community trust if seen as an occupying force coming in from outside to impose control on the community. It is imperative that law enforcement agencies establish a culture of transparency and accountability to build public trust and legitimacy.
1 Sherman, Lawrence, 1998. Evidence Based Policing. Washington, DC: Police Foundation. http://www.policefoundation.org/pdf/Sherman.pdf
Fort Worth Police Department Operations
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