Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia is reflecting on his first 100 days as Cowtown’s top cop.<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Excitement is how Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia describes his first 100 days on the job, a role he said feels like his calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of excitement. Obviously, meeting folks, the rank and file, the community,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
He said returning to a leadership role in policing reaffirmed what he believes he was meant to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell people all the time I was born to do this job. I missed it,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
Sworn in on September 16, Garcia became the 28th police chief in Fort Worth\u2019s history. His appointment came amid controversy over a late application submission, but the 54-year-old quickly moved past that and got to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cStart going, and it\u2019s been nonstop ever since,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
During his first week, Garcia surprised officers working the night shift, joining them during a food break and then riding along on dispatch calls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could learn a lot from the day-to-day of what these men and women do,\u201d he said, “I want my officers to see me as one of them, because I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, his schedule has been filled with community engagement across the city, including speaking at local marathons, attending church food giveaways, and meeting with neighborhood groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s important to really get in and really start building those relationships,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
His first 100 days also include launching a new Constitutional Policing Unit aimed at strengthening officer accountability, adding a new police helicopter, committing to aggressive crime reduction efforts, and taking part in recruitment initiatives. He said the department is on track to reach 1,906 sworn officers, an all-time high.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be at the 1906 officers,\u201d Garcia said, “There’s not a major police department in this country that does not deal with internal discipline issues and things of that nature. I think ultimately, again, we hire from the human race, and oftentimes, unfortunately, we’re going to make mistakes.”<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Garcia said growth within the department will continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowth of the department is going to be tremendous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Plans for 2026 include a crime-fighting drone program, enhanced neighborhood patrols, and expanded use of technology. Garcia said artificial intelligence will also play a major role in public safety moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think moving forward, I think AI is going to play a tremendous role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Garcia shared that those efforts and making sure officers are properly trained on new technology are all aimed at making Fort Worth a safer city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia is reflecting on his first 100 days as Cowtown’s top cop. FORT…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":465581,"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-465580","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\/115766349473478175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465580","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=465580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}