FORT WORTH, Texas — The January 23 Fort Worth city council meeting will likely include a full discussion about whether they should keep parts of the city's police pursuit policy public or keep it under wraps.
It's been an ongoing battle since two separate deadly crashes involving Fort Worth police officers.
"This is going to be one of those difficult votes again here in the city of Fort Worth," said Councilman Chris Nettles.
Nettles is among the city leaders who say they've heard from community members asking why they can't see exactly what the pursuit policy is for Fort Worth, unlike many of its neighboring cities in North Texas.
Some law enforcement agencies have posted their pursuit policy online for the public to see. Several North Texas police chiefs refer to the practice as being transparent. Public access to police pursuit policies includes the Dallas Police Department, Mesquite Police Department, White Settlement Police Department, and many others.
Fort Worth police received a barrage of open records requests following the two deadly crashes last summer. The requests came from multiple media outlets and members of the community wanting to know more about the Fort Worth Police Department's pursuit practices and procedures. That led to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ruling that Fort Worth police should release its pursuit policy.
But lawyers for the city of Fort Worth responded with a lawsuit against Paxton. Since the city council was on a break for the holidays, they are now faced with a vote to ratify or uphold the legal action taken against the attorney general. It's not the first time the pursuit policy has come up for discussion, according to Nettles.
"Several months ago, I asked for the pursuit policy," said Nettles, "Some of the things we discuss openly and other ones we discuss in executive session because there was information that has normally not been released per the AG's support and all of a sudden it has determined that we should release everything."
Nettles says he's been undecided on the Paxton lawsuit. He says he's more concerned about what the public should and should not know about pursuits.
"If the community has a question or if a media (outlet) wants to know what the policies Fort Worth is, then they have a right to know that information," said Nettles, "The chief (of) police believes that there are parts of this pursuit policy that would endanger their officers if, in fact, the community knows."
Among those in the community who say they want to know are Neferati Mundy and Adrian Hill. Last summer, they say their brother Andre Craig was one of two people killed during separate pursuits in Fort Worth. An officer struck Andre's truck while chasing a stolen vehicle, they say.
"Andre was full of life, gregarious. He was the oldest sibling of our sibling group of nine, so he was the oldest and first," said Mundy.
"One of the things my father has said and one of the things that I continue (to) iterate is that Andre loved people. He loved his friends. He loved being able to serve his friends through cooking. And that was one of his favorite things to do. That is one of the ways that he shared his love with people through food," said Hill.
Andre's family says they have filed an open records request for the police department's pursuit policy in an effort to learn more about Andre's death.
"I think it tells us something about them and their actions because they're in complete contrast to doing what's best for the people that they have sworn to serve and protect. It leaves us to draw their own conclusions," Neferati Mundy said, "We've tried to get it. We've submitted a public records request, an open records request. I think it's reprehensible."
"It just makes you kind of think like, what are they hiding?" said Hill, "What isn't in those documents that they can't share with the public, you know, which they're there to protect and serve."
Andre's family says learning the pursuit policy won't bring him back, but it may shed light on the deadly police crash.
The siblings also shared that their family has taken legal action in the case of their brother's death.
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