Changing Your City and the Fort Worth Police Department Partnering Together!
Reducing Violent Crime one prayer at a time!
#FortWorthSafe
In May 2022, the City of Fort Worth, in conjunction with the Fort Worth Police Department, the United Way and numerous social service agencies and faith-based organizations, embarked on an initiative to reduce violent crime called #FortWorthSafe. This initiative was presented to the Fort Worth City Council at one of their work sessions. Police Chief Neil Noakes shared that he was seeking solutions and people that can be trusted to help lower violent crime.
The founder of Changing Your City, Jim DeLong, attended this work session. This started a journey for Changing Your City to propose a preliminary initiative to lower violent crime to Chief Noakes.
The Initiative’s Vision
Changing Your City exists to mobilize people into action with the purpose of changing cultures through actively engaging in prayer. This purpose aligns with the goals of #FortWorthSafe, and therefore provides Changing Your City with an opportunity to assist Fort Worth in becoming a safer and more peaceful city.
A preliminary initiative to lower violent crime was presented by Changing Your City to Chief Noakes. The initiative focuses on lowering violent crime in one of Fort Worth’s highest crime areas — the East Division.
The methodology is for police officers and Clergy And Police Alliance (CAPA) members, administrated by Changing Your City, to daily speak out a prayer (on a volunteer and non- mandatory basis) at the start of each of their shifts. The prayer was provided by Changing Your City.
The proposed initiative was accepted.
The Initiative in Action
During March 2023, a presentation of the initiative was made during each of the three roll calls in the East Division. Every officer in attendance was given the opportunity to sign up to speak out the prayer as they began their shifts. Also, CAPA members were given an opportunity to sign up and Ride In with these officers, joining with them in the prayer.
The initiative ran from April 1, 2023 through July 7, 2023. At the end of this time and with the use of the police department’s official statistics, a comparison of eight violent crime offenses between the same time period in 2022 and 2023 was made (Exhibit 1). These offenses were, Aggravated Assault, Kidnapping/Abduction, Murder & Manslaughter, Sex Offenses, Burglary/Breaking & Entering, Destruction of Property, Larceny/Theft Offenses, and Robbery.
Fourteen officers representing nine beats in the East Division (Exhibit 3) and a number of CAPA members took part in the initiative.
Overall, Violent crime was lowered 20%
Exhibit 1: Observed Results of the initiative by type of crime
Observations of the Initiative’s Findings
An exciting correlation was observed by the initiative’s findings:
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When officers prayed, the statistics revealed that violent crime was lowered by 20% (Exhibit 1).
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As a result, the officers’ prayers had the effect of preemptively lowering crime (Exhibit 1).
Additional Initiative Benefits
At the initiative’s beginning, there was a clear and specific purpose: lower violent crime. However, once started, the initiative began to take on a life of its own. Three other important benefits became apparent: reducing governmental finances, CAPA’s involvement, and the positive impact peace can have on the mental well-being of police officers.
Reducing Financial Resources When Prosecuting Criminals
In today’s world, there is a high cost when prosecuting criminals. Every violent crime that is proactively thwarted saves governmental agencies significant finances (Table 1). Lowering crime by 20% can potentially save city, county and state authorities millions of dollars.
The Cost of Violent Crime by City, County and State
Homicide: $1 million per suspect
Shooting Injury: $710,000 per suspect
The cost of prosecuting these crimes is staggering. Just think of the millions of taxpayer dollars that could be saved annually and used for other purposes when violent crime is lowered. For example, between 2016 and May 2022, at least 100 teen gun homicides occurred in Tarrant County (Map 1). Hypothetically, if these 100 homicides were reduced by 20% (reduced by 20 homicides), that would be a savings of $20 million.
Map 1: Teen Gun Homicides. Source: Tarrant County medical examiner records
The savings incurred by lowering violent crime in itself is a tremendous financial advantage of this initiative.
The Benefit of CAPA Participation
CAPA is dedicated to supplying spiritual support to Fort Worth’s residents who find themselves in stressful and dangerous situations. But also, when CAPA members Ride Out with an officer, there’s an opportunity for the CAPA member to provide spiritual strength and support to officers who voluntarily open up about issues in their personal lives. Granted, this is initiated totally on the officer’s part, without the prompting by CAPA members. This can be a tremendous benefit to an officers well-being and their mental health. It’s important to note that some CAPA members are licensed chaplains.
CAPA Members who voluntarily took part in this initiative increased their abiity to effectively contribute to the increasedd safety of Fort Worth’s residents and police officers.
In addition, the scope of CAPA could be expanded to include requests to pray (not on-site) when crises arise that need immediate attention. This could include requests concerning: SWAT incidents, hostage negotiations and undercover incidents.
Improving Officer Mental Health
Today, officers face intense and invasive scrutiny from the public at large and from elected officials. The very people and cities they’ve sworn to protect and defend have, to some extent, turned against them. There is a national move by activist groups demanding to defund and to control the actions of police departments. This is one reason why officer attrition has skyrocketed in departments across our nation.
In addition to this, there is the everyday stress levels officers face. These issues can heavily affect an officer’s mental health.
One in four officers have considered committing suicide – more officers die from suicide than from dying in the line of duty1. In addition, long-term exposure to violent and intense altercations and traumatic events can affect officer morale and their physical and mental wellbeing2. As a result, job performance can be adversely affected3.
This initiative not only reveals that peace can lower violent crime but also that peace positively impacts an officer’s mental health. An article from Psychology Today relates the following effects being at peace has on people. “You are protected from stress, your immune system grows stronger, and you become more resilient. Your outlook brightens and you see more opportunities. In relationships, feeling at peace prevents overreactions, increases the odds of being treated well by others, and supports you in being clear and direct when you need to be”4.
Imagine the positive impact peace can have on officer job performance and on officers’ decision-making when facing high-tension, split-second and death-threatening altercations.
A Summary of the Results and Benefits of the Preliminary Initiative to Lower Violent Crime
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Violent crime was reduced by 20%.
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Officers participating in the initiative were able to proactively reduce crimes from taking place.
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CAPA’s involvement positively increased the effectiveness of this initiative.
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Increased collaboration between officers and CAPA can play a vital role in improving officer mental health and wellness.
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Reducing crime can save city, county, and state agencies millions of taxpayer dollars annually.
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Peace reduces officer stress, anxiety, and depression.
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Officers who are at peace have an increased positive outlook and stronger immune systems. They are more resilient, see situations in a more positive manner, and have a brighter outlook. Increased peace also prevents overreactions, promotes clear and critical thinking, and increases mental and physical well-being.
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Officers who experience increased peace will result in fewer officer use of force incidences, fewer resident complaints on officer conduct and improve officer and resident relations.
Recommendation
Fort Worth, like many police departments across our country, is challenged to find ways to lower crime, especially in an environment where there is open hostility against the department, there is a public outcry to defund the police and there are efforts to limit their ability to carry out their mission.
The positive results and benefits of this initiative are staggering and greatly exceed its intended scope and expectations.
It is recommended that this initiative be implemented department wide.
However, moving forward with wisdom is imperative.
Changing Your City is thankful for the opportunity to
work in conjunction with the Fort Worth Police Department and
Clergy And Police Alliance to lower violent crime in Fort Worth.
Exhibit 2
LAW ENFORCEMENT PRAYER
Speak this prayer out loud every time you start your shift:
Jesus, You are the Prince of Peace. Thank You for calling me to be an officer of Your peace. Because of the authority You’ve given me, I unleash the power of peace over Fort Worth. As I begin my shift, I thank You for keeping me, my family, fellow officers and the residents of Fort Worth safe.
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Thank You that Your peace is going before me to calm every situation that seeks to kill, steal and bring division in this city.
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Thank You that You are personally breaking down dividing walls of hostility between people of different, races, cultures and ideologies.
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Thank You that Your peace is acting like an umpire, influencing people to make godly decisions that line up with Your Word and Your ways.
Holy Spirit, thank You for going before me to lead, guide, protect and open my eyes to clearly see the root cause of every situation I encounter.
In Jesus’ Name — Amen!
Exhibit 3
Map of Fort Worth East Division Beats
The beat numbers prayed over are outlined in red.
Footnotes
1: https://americanpoliceofficersalliance.com/mental-health-statistics-police-officers/
2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8575544/
3: https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/inner-peace/benefits-of-peace-of-mind/
4: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-wise-brain/201611/what-is-your-sense-peace