Fort Worth police chief disrespects Black residents with hand-picked group of advisers | Opinion
Published: Fri, 03/10/23
Fort Worth police chief disrespects Black residents with hand-picked group of advisers | Opinion
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
BY THE REV. PATRICK D. MOSES
MARCH 10, 2023 6:03 AM
As I reflect on the Fort Worth City Council’s closely divided vote opposing the “citizen-recommended” police Civilian Review Board and the advisory board Police Chief Neil Noakes proposes to create, I am wrestling with a line in Habakkuk 2:4, formed as a question: “How can the righteous live by their faith” and stay silent on this disrespectful act against citizens?
I serve as the pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church, located in City Council District 8. I am a retired federal law enforcement executive and a member of the International Association for Chiefs of Police.
Without insulting the capable selected members of Noakes’ panel, the concept aligns with a neoliberal agenda of distancing accountability for policing away from citizens and centralizes oversight under the police chief. The chief’s proposal no doubt will appease those who trust the police.
Just consider the 5-4 vote against the review board recommended by the city’s Race and Culture Task Force; what areas do the five members represent? What communities do the four members represent?
Policing and community trust in Berkeley Place is different than it is where I pastor, on the corner of Miller and Fairfax Avenues.
Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes speaks during a press conference in 2021.
Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
To be sure, the chief’s proposal will widen the divide between marginalized communities, particularly those who must have ”the talk” with their children about how to handle encounters with officers; the people I serve as a pastor.
The National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement identifies eight attributes of meaningful police oversight: It must be proactive, independent, community-driven, empowered, transparent, individualized, an investment in our communities, and an iterative process. “Oversight is not chosen or housed by police departments,” the group says. Transparent, independent, community-centered trust between the citizens and the Police Department cannot occur when the chief appoints members to oversee policing in their communities.
At a November meeting with Noakes and several African-American pastors, I cautioned the chief about the concern of the “fox guarding the henhouse.” The creation of the advisory board and the City Council’s complicity is a slap in the face for the 2,765 African Americans killed by police officers in cities across the U.S. in the last decade, including the 228 in Texas, and more particularly, those who suffered over the death of Atatiana Jefferson at the hands of a Fort Worth officer. Her killer’s defense team’s dog whistle about the “high crime” area she lived in did not fall on deaf ears.
America just witnessed what happens when a City Council withholds accountability and transparency from an independent, citizen-centered review board. The aftermath is Memphis, where officers brutally killed Tyre Nichols. The reaction from some in Tennessee’s legislature, however, is to propose eliminating citizen boards in Memphis and Nashville and empower police chiefs to tell citizens what they need to know about their communities because chiefs have the authority and autonomy to hold themselves accountable. That is absurd.
Noakes’ proposal is doing what Tennessee’s proposed legislation attempts: silencing the voices of marginalized people whose mere survival oftentimes depends upon community-centered policing. Fort Worth, we are better than that. We must ensure that every citizen has an opportunity to flourish to a full life as a creation of God without living in fear of the police.
There is still time for the city to improve relationships between citizens and the Police Department. In fact, Fort Worth has the opportunity to become a “best practice” city in policing and community partnering. The righteous can live by their faith only through the creation of a citizen-recommended review board that encourages and promotes accountability, oversight, transparency and independence.
Where do you see those aspirational terms in Noakes’ self-appointed advisory board?
How can a board hand-picked by the chief hold the Fort Worth Police Department accountable and promote trust among the citizens of Fort Worth?
The Rev. Patrick D. Moses is pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth and a retired law enforcement leader for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Rev. Patrick D. Moses