The defund the police movement has been rebuked in the nation’s 13th largest city where voters approved the continuation of a tax that funds the city’s police department.
More than 64 percent of voters in Fort Worth approved for 10 more years a half-cent sales tax that was set to expire on Sept. 30.
Money garnered through the tax goes to fund various law enforcement efforts, including crime prevention. The programs funded by the tax are referred to as the Fort Worth Crime Control and Prevention District.
The decision on whether or not to keep the tax was included in city elections this week.
Mayor Betsy Price, a Republican, said she was pleased with the vote, saying in a statement, “It demonstrates confidence in our City and Police Department.”
READ: Poll shows overwhelming black support for police
The district was established in 1995 to try to boost law enforcement efforts after high crime rates occurred in the late 1980s, according to the Forth Worth government. Voters approved to continue the tax four times before. The last vote was in 2014. The approval is usually for five years; this time, it was for a decade.
The crime prevention district “has played a part in making Fort Worth one of the nation’s safest large cities,” Price said in a statement earlier this year.
The per-capita incidence of major crimes has decreased 63 percent since the district was first created, Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus said in a presentation made to voters before the election, even as the population of the city keeps increasing.
The Fort Worth Police Officers Association, a police union, said that voters rejected the defund the police movement.
“Today, the citizens of Fort Worth, Texas have sent a loud and clear message to the nation; in Fort Worth, we support our police,” the group said in a statement.
No police department is perfect but the department is a model organization, according to the union.
The Black Lives Matter movement tried convincing voters to ditch financing the district.
“Fort Worth spends nearly $1 million per day on policing. More money for police is not okay. Vote AGAINST Prop A!” Fort Worth Futures, one of the groups, said in one of a number of similar social media posts this month.
–Wire services
