A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FORT WORTH POLICE DEPARTMENT

Twenty-four years after the little community was founded on the bluffs over the Trinity River, Fort Worth received its city charter from the state legislature on March 1, 1873.  When the first municipal elections were held two days later Ed Terrell was elected first town marshal of Fort Worth. The city council met on March 4 and created the Fort Worth Police Department. The new department took up its duties April 10, and on April 22 the first police badge, a simple star, was approved by the council. The fledgling department began with just four appointed “deputies” in addition to the marshal.  A fifth officer, Hague Tucker, an African-American, was added on April 23, tasked with policing his own people in town -- and no others. Just one month after its creation the FWPD fell victim to a sluggish local economy.  Three of the original four officers were let go in a belt-tightening move.  New officers were soon hired for the duration of the cattle season after the cowboys proved too much for the marshal and two deputies to handle alone.

Through the 19^th century the marshal doubled as the police chief, an arrangement that would continue until the city commission form of government was adopted in 1908. The last elected “city marshal” was J.H. Maddox in 1905. L.J. Polk was appointed to be the city’s top cop by commissioners on April 14, 1909, and the position has been known ever since as “Chief of Police”.

None of the first five marshals starting in 1873 lasted very long as most men were not up to the demands of being a frontier marshal.  Timothy Isaiah Courtright became number six when he was elected in 1876. He brought to the job a real talent for handling cowboys plus widely respected skill with a six-gun.  Both served him well for three terms.

The police force grew with the city, along the way becoming a much more professional department.  For many years, policemen supplemented their meager salaries with a percentage of “fees and fines” collected by the city.  Unfortunately, that system also encouraged rampant corruption.  In 1889 Marshal Sam Farmer instituted the first written policies and procedures for the department. A standard uniform and badge were also introduced at this time: The uniform to consist of navy blue pants and matching frock coat topped by either blue helmet in the summer and a blue cap in the winter; the badge to consist of a shield with an eagle standing upon it. The chief and his first deputy wore a black slouch hat with their uniform. In 1914, the department adopted the current badge: a gold shield with a crouching panther atop it, honoring Fort Worth’s “Panther City” origins. The first “plain-clothes” detective was W. M. Rea, appointed in 1883. Crime investigation was still in its infancy, but Fort Worth was no backwater in adopting modern methods.

In the late 19^th century, officers either walked their beats or rode horseback. Standard arms were still a six-gun and a billy club, both of which the officer himself had to provide.  In those days, officers kept in touch with the station house through telephone “call boxes” strategically placed around town.

Early in the 20^th century, the department moved from the age of horses to motorcycles and bicycles. In 1909 Henry Lewis became the first officer to do his patrolling on a motorcycle, a 5-horsepower “Indian” bike.  Lewis immediately put his motorized “steed” to work catching speeders.  He set up a “speed trap” in the 100 block of West 7^th St. by measuring an eighth of a mile, then timing cars as they passed him with a stop watch. Those found to be speeding, to their great surprise, were pulled over within a few blocks.  Five years later, the department put fifteen patrolmen on bicycles, an experiment that ended in 1917.  The first patrol car was added in 1914 to keep up with the growing number of automobiles in the population.  The move toward motorized transportation obscured the fact that the department was not that far removed from its frontier days.  The official end of the “Mounted Force” did not come until 1924 when the last horse was retired to pasture, and the last mounted officer, Thomas Bounds, was reassigned to the animal pound.

The next significant innovation came in the 1930s.  On Halloween night 1933 headquarters dispatched a police car by radio to 3454 Lowell to investigate a report of “pranksters”. In a few years, every patrol car was equipped with a two-way radio.

Over the next seven decades steady growth in the size of the FWPD was accompanied by new technologies, evolving policies, and growing diversity in the makeup of the force. After 1954 the department was fully integrated, and in the next decade women officers joined the ranks. In 1993 Chief T.R. Windham launched the Citizens on Patrol Program (COPS) to forge a closer cooperation between police and residents of suburban neighborhoods.

What started in 1873 as a four-man amateur force has grown into a modern, professional department of over 1300 uniformed officers and detectives. The men and women of the FWPD now have computers in their patrol cars and use the latest in weapons and forensic technology.  As the city expands in the 21^st century, the FWPD will expand with it, continuing to provide a safe community for all its citizens.

FORT WORTH POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION (FWPOA)