The ‘wildcard’ in keeping West 7th safe: Guns and booze. Will Fort Worth’s plan work?

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In response to three shootings over the past eight months, Fort Worth police this week presented a proposal with several new initiatives to increase public safety in the West 7th entertainment district.

A TCU student was killed in a shooting in the area in September, and a man was shot and killed on Crockett Street in early March. Another shooting later that month left a 23-year-old man in critical condition.

The proposal includes initiatives like traffic control infrastructure, increased camera surveillance and a new civilian ambassador program for the area, among other operations.

Booze and guns make policing West 7th difficult

While the plan has potential, the combination of alcohol and gun availability makes it difficult to ensure public safety in areas like West 7th, according to George Eichenberg, a criminal justice professor at Tarleton State University.

“The presence of alcohol combined with access to weapons is a bit of a ‘wildcard’ in terms of the ability of the capable guardians to protect potential victims,” he said in an email exchange.

Eichenberg, however, does not recommend removing guns from the equation as a means to reduce gun violence.

“Gun control proposals are analogous to prohibiting trucks and SUVs because some people drive drunk,” he said, adding that “none of the controls enacted or on the table, logically, could not solve the problems they are advertised to solve.”

Sensible gun policies, however, have been observed to lower gun violence elsewhere in the world, according to Jon Lowy, president and founder of the gun policy advocacy group Global Action on Gun Violence.

“Every other comparable nation, in Europe and elsewhere, has implemented sensible, strong gun laws, and they do not have a gun violence crisis,” he said. “There are some gun deaths, but it is minuscule by comparison to the United States. In Japan, you’re much more likely to be killed by lightning strike than by gunfire.”

Guns kill more Americans than car crashes do each year, according to CDC data.

“That is not because it’s in the water in the United States. It’s not because people in the United States are more mentally unstable, it’s not because people in the United States are more criminally minded. It’s not because our forefathers condemned us to live in this gun massacre dystopia,” Lowy said. “It’s because of deliberate practices in the gun industry.”

Lowy, who worked as chief legal counsel for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence for 25 years before founding Global Action on Gun Violence in 2022, has worked with Mexico on its lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers and distributors. The lawsuit, which a federal judge ruled could move forward in March, alleges that over 90% of guns recovered at crime scenes in that country originated in the United States.

“Every illegal gun starts as a legal gun, and virtually all crime guns enter the criminal market through reckless or unlawful business practices of the gun industry,” Lowy said. “About 5% of gun dealers sell about 90% of crime guns.”

Will more cameras and civilian ambassadors reduce crime?

Policing in a free society must inherently be reactive to this kind of crime, Eichenberg said, “as a free society has a low tolerance for proactive law enforcement.” The ambassador program could be “a good bridge” between reactive and proactive policing, he said.

Modeled on a program already in operation downtown, the $315,000 ambassador program will see three civilians patrol West 7th streets from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday to Sunday, according to John Koch, an executive with Block by Block, the company that contracts with the city for the program.

The ambassadors will be “an extra set of eyes and ears for the police,” Koch said, observing behavior, reporting crimes and providing other public safety services, like walking people to their cars.

Other upcoming police strategies for the area include more officers on bikes and on foot, the installation of cameras operated by automated surveillance company Flock Safety that feed directly into the departments’ Real Time Crime Center, and limiting rideshare pickups to designated areas on Currie Street.

Flock Safety will also provide free access to the Fort Worth police’s Community Camera Program for 10 area businesses. This program allows businesses to stream their live feeds directly to the Real Time Crime Center.

The company has been criticized for its refusal to allow its technology to be tested by an independent third-party research group that has tested all of its major competitors. Several Fort Worth neighborhoods have opposed the cameras in their streets.

Johnny Nhan, a criminal justice professor at TCU, said the plan will “probably make an impact on crime,” as long as bars in the neighborhood play their part. Nhan is also a reserve Fort Worth police officer and patrols about once a week.

“The demographics of that location has changed drastically in the past few years from a college crowd to some of the more ‘undesirable’ patrons that include gangs,” he said. “This has made the area more dangerous but from what I’m hearing from the officers, the businesses continue to welcome such a crowd for profit reasons.”

There are obvious “social ramifications” to the issue of being less welcoming to people suspected of being involved in gang activity, Nhan said, adding that private establishments have the right to refuse service and entry to the premises to anyone.

Bars could collaborate with police to control the demographics of their clientele, he said. “However, if they’re still welcoming these patrons and the police [are] dealing with this group, you can see it’s not going to be easy given that they’re paddling in different directions so to speak.”

The Star-Telegram spoke with managers at several West 7th bars, none of whom agreed to go on the record. All said they have strict dress codes and some said they search incoming patrons on busy nights, patting down male clients and checking women’s bags.

One manager said he felt the police needed to do more, not bar operators. He said he regularly notices groups of police officers clustering on corners, rather than spreading out to cover more ground.

As for the Flock Safety cameras, the Real Time Crime Center and more police presence, Nhan said these are likely to “help a bit.” Still, they are just more of the same tactics that, as evinced by the nature of Tuesday’s presentation, have not been completely successful.

“It’s part of the strategy that is difficult without more partners and addressing more underlying causes,” he said. “I say this because that has been the strategy before and the question is, will adding more help?”