Fort Worth adds $7.2M to crime control prevention budget

The Fort Worth Crime Control and Prevention District budget got a boost of $7.2 million from recent action by the Fort Worth City Council.

During the March 4 meeting, council voted to approve a money transfer from the available fund balance. With the amendment passed, the CCPD budget for fiscal year 2024-25 is now $148.7 million, according to city documents.

What you need to know

A majority of the money will be going to the capital fund, in which $6.1 million will be for funding of a crime lab study, purchase of land for future patrol division(s), renovation of existing space at 3900 Barnett St. for expansion of the real-time crime center and the far north patrol sector pilot program.

The cost breakdown for the $6.1 million includes:

• $99,000 for crime lab study by Dr. Timothy Scanlan with forensic analysis, consulting and training
• $5.5 million for renovations
• $500,000 for the far north patrol sector

What’s else?

According to city documents, the other $1.1 million of the funds will be used for initiatives.

Recruiting and training will receive $840,764 in funding, while $250,000 will go toward the outscoring of sexual assault kits. The latter will allow the city to comply with Texas House Bill 8 and current funding will be exhausted to eliminate the backlog of sexual assault kits but it would not leave resources for new kits, according to city documents.

In 2024, Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes announced a backlog of more than 900 unprocessed sexual assault kits, according to previous reporting.