Fort Worth’s Crime Control and Prevention District approved the district’s 2026 recommended budget of just over $138.6 million, and $502,045 in grants in the current fiscal year for two community partner programs.
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The fiscal 2026 recommendation represents a 2.61% increase from the current year’s budget of $135.08 million. Among the eight top-level line items in the district’s revenue summary presented for approval at its Aug. 19 meeting, the most significant percentage increase — other than from interest income with its 37.5% jump — is school resource office reimbursements, which are expected to increase 7.69%.
Sales tax revenue, which represents the lion’s share of the district’s revenues, is expected to grow 4.73%, but the number is tenuous, Robert Alldredge, the interim police chief, said.
He informed the board that anticipated challenges and uncertainty surrounding sales tax revenue in the upcoming fiscal year are creating budget complications and necessitating adjustments throughout the year.
As part of its Emerging Partners initiative, the district approved a $250,000 grant to Como Lions Heart for its Friday Night Lights program in City Council District 6.
This program offers mentorship, life skills workshops, career guidance and a safe space for children as young as 5 and adults up to 25 years old in Lake Como. The program aims to reduce crime, promote positive decision-making, and help youth explore career opportunities. The grant will cover the program costs for 40 participants, the agency said in its application.
The other approved grant, $252,045 to the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, will support the organization’s Stable Homes, Stable Schools program. The initiative provides affordable, quality mental health services through licensed counselors to individuals of all ages and backgrounds in north and west Fort Worth, and especially to at-risk youth.
The goal is to reduce crime and school drop-out rates by addressing their root causes. The new grant will help the program serve 350 participants, according to the coalition’s application.
Alldredge also presented updates on Fort Worth crime statistics:
- Calendar year homicides: down 12.5%
- 1.18 million calls for service
- 250,224 self-initiated calls
- Response times and crime rates: all down significantly, except Priority 1 response times, which increased 0.5%, about five seconds. “Pretty much everything else went down considerably,” Alldredge said. “Whenever you look at property crimes or crimes against persons, those numbers went down considerably. And that’s because of the hard work of the men and women out there doing the job. It’s very encouraging.”
- Crime rate (per 100,000 population) continues to decrease annually. “Our violent crime and our property crimes even year to date are down,” Alldredge said. “That’s the first time both of those categories have been down since probably 2020.”
The fiscal 2026 CCPD budget of $130.27 million represents 28% of the police department’s total recommended budget of $460.1 million.
The bulk of the proposed CCPD budget (39%) is allocated to personnel.
Benefits, purchased professional and tech services and transfer out capital account for 16%-17% each.
The remaining budget is divided among purchased property services, supplies, other purchased services and transfer out operating costs.
Alldredge said the combined 55% police budget for personnel services and benefits is above the 50% level he’d like to keep them at, to avoid “the risk of impeding some of the other things that we’re doing throughout the year.”
Lou Chapman is a member of the Fort Worth Report’s Documenters team.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
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