after a formal news conference announcing his new role. <\/a><\/p>\nAfter suddenly leaving his role as Dallas police chief in October 2024, Garcia went to Austin to oversee public safety as the Assistant City Manager. He was only there for less than a year. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the concerns that some people had was that you left Austin so quickly. How are you addressing that concern?\u201d asked NBC 5’s Tahera Rahman. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019ll be frank with you, I mean, I was there– similar to athletes in the past and they hang up their cleats and then decide they didn\u2019t,” he said. <\/p>\n
Garcia said he enjoyed working with Austin leadership and learned a lot, but realized he wanted to stay in law enforcement. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a commitment perspective\u2026 regardless where salary ends up here, it\u2019s going to be less than I made in Austin, and I\u2019ll be working more hours here. So, I mean, I hope that puts that commitment question to rest, because, I mean, I want to be a cop. I want to be back in uniform,” he said. <\/p>\n
His goals, he said, are to increase morale and staffing in the department, increase community trust, and decrease crime. <\/p>\n
“One thing that we hear so often from the community here is, ‘We want accountability, we want oversight, and we want better community policing.’ Where do you think you fall on those things?” asked NBC 5’s Tahera Rahman. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want all those things. I\u2019ve always wanted all those things,” Garcia said. \u201cWe will hold ourselves accountable. We will be transparent. We will increase community trust.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re bringing so much experience to Fort Worth, but what are you also hoping to learn from Fort Worth?\u201d NBC 5 asked. <\/p>\n
“Well, obviously, learning the neighborhoods, learning what affects each individual neighborhood. You don\u2019t learn that in a book, you don\u2019t learn that reading it online, the only way you learn that is going out,” Garcia said. “I\u2019m not a standing office chief. And so, I envision many, many days of meeting my residents and meeting my community.” <\/p>\n
He added that it won’t be a challenge, but just something he’s got to learn, which he’s done before. <\/p>\n
That includes embracing Cowtown’s cowboy culture. <\/p>\n
“One of the things I was so pumped when I got the job was that I got my black hat. I’m ready to go out there– well, not all the time, but yeah, you’ll see me out there in some boots and my black hat, there’s no question about it!” Garcia said. <\/p>\n
Garcia said he plans to start working even before he steps into office on September 22. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll probably start reaching out to the criminologists and start some information sharing,” he said. <\/p>\n
But first– \u201cI have to find a place to live, I\u2019ve got to move out of my apartment in Austin,” Garcia laughed.<\/p>\n
A historic move for Fort Worth<\/p>\n
During her speech formally introducing Garcia, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker called his appointment “historic.” <\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of his tenure at other places,” said City Manager Jay Chapa. <\/p>\n
Garcia’s predecessor, retired Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes, agreed. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis resume, I think, is the most impressive resume of any chief we\u2019ve ever had at Fort Worth PD. He\u2019s the only person I know we\u2019ve ever hired who\u2019s been successful at public safety in three other major cities before ever even coming to Fort Worth,” Noakes said. <\/p>\n
Noakes knew Garcia while each was chief of his own domain. <\/p>\n
On Friday, a hug and a changing of the guard between the two in Fort Worth. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt warmed my heart, because I know that we have somebody that\u2019s leading the department that will lead with their heart,” Noakes said. “He brings a passion for the job and a passion for the people he works with and the people he serves that I think is unmatched anywhere across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Council is expected to confirm Garcia via resolution on Sept. 16, then swear him in. His first day is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Eddie Garcia took to the podium in Fort Worth on Friday morning, he said he really couldn’t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":168359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-168358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115076392738604564","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}