DALLAS — The state of police oversight in Fort Worth is in flux more than three years after an on-duty officer now convicted of manslaughter fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson in her mother’s home.
Fort Worth’s inaugural police oversight monitor Kim Neal left in November after more than two years in the position, and the city hasn’t hired a replacement. City Council members narrowly rejected a recommendation to create a police advisory board, angering activists and some residents. And a recent 97-page report commissioned by Fort Worth following Jefferson’s death found that officers aren’t reliably held accountable even though they’re often combative and aggressive with the public.
Those events weighed on the minds of politicians, activists and residents during the murder trial of Aaron Dean, 38, who was sentenced Dec. 20 to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison. The punishment marked the end of the long-awaited trial, but where reform efforts go from here remains to be seen. Fort Worth police say they’ve changed policies since Jefferson’s death, but activists say they believe there’s still a long road ahead for the city.
“This verdict underscores the important work that needs to be done locally and nationally to ensure a tragedy like this one does not happen again,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Veasey, whose district includes Fort Worth. “It’s time for the city of Fort Worth to create a civilian police review board that boosts transparency and accountability.”
Dean, a white officer, fatally shot Jefferson, a Black woman, through the bedroom window of her mother’s home Oct. 12, 2019. He fired from the backyard while responding to a call. Jefferson grabbed a gun after she heard noises outside. Dean and another officer did not announce themselves as police officers.
A concerned neighbor called a nonemergency police line about 2:30 a.m. because the doors were open and the lights were on inside. Jefferson and her 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, were up late playing video games and had left the doors open to air out smoke after they burned hamburgers at dinnertime. Jefferson moved into the East Fort Worth home to care for her ailing mother and Zion, whose mother also was in poor health.
The shooting happened just seven months before a nationwide reckoning over race and policing after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020. After Jefferson died, protesters took to the streets and gathered outside Jefferson’s house to demand justice. Demonstrations were reported in other U.S. cities, as well.
A panel of experts reviewed Fort Worth police policies after Dean killed Jefferson and suggested changes that were unveiled after the 2020 protests. Fort Worth police instituted clearer guidelines regarding de-escalation and duty to intervene. They are also “transitioning” to a new early intervention system and boosting the number of officers on the crisis intervention team, according to police. The department also beefed up its internal affairs unit, which investigates allegations of misconduct against officers, and outlined plans to better track civilian complaints.
In a statement to The Dallas Morning News after Dean was sent to prison, Fort Worth police said Jefferson’s death had a “profound impact” on the department. Although the community is still healing, the department said, police look forward “to continuing to work with those we serve to make Fort Worth a place where we can all live and work in safety.”
The department pointed to the policy changes adopted after the experts’ report and said it has continued its neighborhood police officer program while working to expand community policing services.
Police said they’re trying to increase efforts to recruit officers from diverse backgrounds and are committed to addressing remaining recommendations. Of about 1,743 sworn Fort Worth police officers, about 61% are white, 24% are Hispanic or Latino, 10% are Black and 2.2% are Asian, according to the department’s June 30, 2022, diversity report. The city of Fort Worth’s population is about 56% white, 35% Hispanic or Latino, 19% Black and 5% Asian, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from July.
“The death of Atatiana Jefferson not only impacted Fort Worth Police Department policies but it also led to an even greater focus on enhancing the department’s relationship with our community and increasing our community policing efforts,” the department said.
But one of activists’ most salient requests was for Fort Worth to form a police advisory board, similar to the community police oversight board in Dallas. That idea was rejected by the city.
The board of civilians, recommended by the city’s race and culture task force, would’ve reviewed policies, gathered community input and worked with the city’s police oversight office, which had helped craft the idea. The proposal was shot down in a 5-4 vote in November, drawing disappointment from residents including Dione Sims, granddaughter of nationally known Fort Worth civil-rights leader Opal Lee, and Bob Ray Sanders, the former co-chair of the race and culture task force, according to KXAS-TV (NBC5).
“This community is still one tragic event away from an uproar,” Sanders told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in November after the advisory board was rejected. Council members who voted against it argued the board was redundant with the police oversight office, but supporters of the idea said the board was meant to help give police more community perspectives, the Star-Telegram reported.
The timeline for a new police oversight monitor — an official role employed by the city — to replace Neal remains unclear. A Fort Worth spokeswoman said officials are reviewing proposals to select a firm to conduct a nationwide search. The city hopes to select a firm in January to begin the search, she said.
Fort Worth council member Chris Nettles, who’d advocated for the board, said after Dean’s sentence that the work to keep Black people safe has only just begun. He said the former officer’s conviction and punishment was “the bare minimum.”
“Today we can take a deep breath,” he said in a written statement. “But we must hold it in. This will not be the last time an innocent Black person is murdered by a police officer, so we must continue to stay vigilant and on defense. I will not rest until my Black community can finally feel safe in their own homes without fear of being shot to death.”
Last week, as the Dean trial was ongoing, Fort Worth council members approved a salary increase of about $15,000 for police trainees. Police departments nationwide, including in Dallas and other North Texas cities, have faced a hiring crisis, and cities have boosted pay or added new incentives in hopes of attracting better quality recruits, as well as more applicants.
Activists at the Dean trial criticized the timing, saying Dean was a rookie when he fatally shot Jefferson.
“It’s a slap in the face,” Nysse Nelson said. “Are we going to get better officers from giving them more pay? I don’t think so. I’d rather see a change in training and tactics and procedures and policies versus giving more money.”
A psychologist who evaluated Dean before he was hired as a Fort Worth police officer testified at the trial Dean wasn’t fit for police work.
Psychologist Kyle Clayton testified Dean was “not psychologically suitable to serve as a police officer” because his “narcissistic personality style” could “inhibit his judgement, decision-making, interpersonal abilities and would make him more likely engage in behaviors that would put himself and others at risk.”
Dean’s lawyers said a panel of three psychologists unanimously decided Dean was fit to be an officer. Clayton’s evaluation was in 2017. Dean finished the academy the following year.
Dean resigned before the department could fire him, city officials said in the days after Jefferson died.
Just as has been seen in Dallas and other cities nationwide, the movement to redirect funds away from police departments lost traction since 2020. Many cities doubled down on efforts to fund police in light of spiking rates of homicides and other violent crimes. In Dallas, too, activists have expressed frustration after they said efforts to redirect funds from police to addressing root causes of crime and poverty have stalled since 2020.
Even as some community members see a long path ahead for police reform in Fort Worth, the significance of Dean’s conviction wasn’t lost on them. Before Dean’s arrest, no Tarrant County officer had ever faced a murder charge. For some, the verdict was a small step forward in police accountability.
“We’re optimistic that this decision may represent a paradigm shift, where we begin to overcome racial and social injustices locally, regionally and nationally that have been pervasive in policing,” Estella Williams, president of the Fort Worth and Tarrant County unit of the NAACP, said. “It’s another reminder of how much more we have to do to heal as a nation.”
John Fullinwider, a longtime activist in North Texas and co-founder of Mothers Against Police Brutality, said the number of indictments and convictions for a police shooting “is insignificant compared to the number of fatal police shootings each year,” which he said has risen the past seven years and surpasses 1,000 annually.
He told The News that Jefferson’s family and activists did a great job keeping her name in the public but, going forward, they’ll “likely be met with resistance and tokenism from the police, city hall and the district attorney’s office.” He said keeping alive Jefferson’s legacy and activists’ efforts long after the trial may prove key.
“The challenge is to stay with it,” Fullinwider said, “year in year out, staying organized and forcing elected officials not only to rein in the police but to make the necessary public investment to improve the lives of people in communities that are today racially profiled, over-policed and brutalized — as Atatiana was.”
———
(Dallas Morning News staff writer Krista M. Torralva contributed to this report.)
———
