The police chief who led Fort Worth through a number of difficult times in the past six years announced his retirement today during the pre-City Council meeting at city hall.
Police Chief Jeff Halstead said he will continue working until Jan. 9, 2015, and then retire.
He worked at the Phoenix Police Department for 20 years before moving to Fort Worth. He and his family have fallen in love with Fort Worth and plan to continue living here after his retirement, he said. His wife, Kim, attended the announcement.
Fort Worth police officers had some major screw-ups during his six years of tenure, but Halstead earned a reputation for addressing problems quickly and transparently.
He oversaw the infamous Rainbow Lounge gay bar raid, Taser deaths, and the dozen-plus officers who have been involved in drunken driving incidents, including Halstead’s own chief of staff. Another officer drove his car after drinking at a bar and collided with a car driven by a young mother, who was killed.
Halstead established a zero tolerance policy for officers caught drinking and driving, issued body cameras, pushed for safer Tasers, and has responded to various calamities and controversies with a reasoned calm. He didn’t shirk his responsibility, quickly facing news cameras, angry residents, and concerned elected officials who all watched over his shoulder.
Halstead was only a minute into his retirement speech before his voice began cracking as he fought back tears while describing the hard work of his staff, and his decision to step down.
“I’m not moving,” he said. “I love it here so much. This is our home. My wife is a native Texan. If I want another 27 years of happy marriage I better stay in Texas.”
Halstead joked about media reports that he was being forced out of office and had been butting heads with Mayor Betsy Price. He said the only feud they have is which is a better way to spend an afternoon, off-road biking or on-road biking.
“The employees of this organization are a class act,” he said.
Afterward, the city council members took turns singing his praises.
“As chief you’ve been no stranger to adversity, just like any chief in a major city,” Price said. “Fort Worth is the 17th largest city in the nation. Chiefs face big adversity and major decisions, and nobody has handled them any better than you. You should be very proud of your legacy. ”
Rick Van Houton, president of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association, said Halstead will be missed.
“We are a better police department today than we were six years ago,” he said.
Chief Halstead left the city of Fort Worth with a great accomplishment in the having combined Policing For Profit with the CCPD (Crime Control Prevention District ) tax collection authority. The independent antique mall investigations is a textbook example of how it works and how this program is littered with massive conflicts of interest.
A new comprehensive take on Policing for Profit by incorporating the CCPD. How this figures into the >decade long thefts and burglaries at Montgomery Street Antique Mall.
The Fort Worth PD has a huge stake in the outcome of these massive burglaries being carried out by the Mall owner and his employees. The offenses committed by the FWPD are arrestable offenses because they have been tampering with witnesses and fabricating evidence to get from point A to point B. Mr. Sheidler has been collecting large amounts of sales tax from his tenants (about 150 people on average per year) a percentage of which goes almost directly to the the FWPD through the CCPD (Crime Control Prevention District) sales tax aggressively marketed to the public by Mayor Price and Chief Halstead in early 2014 for instance.
During the life of this independent investigation, and on November of 2012, the mall owner was sued by his own business partners (Matt and Beverly Robb) for theft of cash and property exceeding a million dollars between 2006-2012. (see link below) You and I would normally file a police reports but he did not, why not? Because he would have been asked how long this has been going on and he would have to tell the truth…..from the very beginning. But Matt and Beverly Robb sued only because they could no longer sustain the losses. It was OK when he burglarized the tenants over the years, but when he began to burglarize them too, his business partners, they had to either sue or file a police report. That they knew how long his business partner had been doing this makes them quasi co-accomplices for not reporting the crimes. Although it may not have helped much in his case from the 2001 burglary, they had an arms-length duty to report it to law enforcement and it could have saved lots of victims and their property after 2001.
But then the FWPD armed with the new CCPD sales tax collection scheme would be shooting themselves in the foot by shutting down this burglary operation. They have been protecting this burglary operation for a variety of reasons but there is no doubt the CCPD tax collection is the vital tipping point helping manipulate witnesses and fabricate evidence to shut down investigations. Millions have been lost by the citizens of this City and North Texas to this burglary operation, but at least the police made lots of money and that is the purpose of government. Correct?
The following link is audio/video of harassment from the FWPD when we discovered the connection between the CCPD and the piling up of theft and burglary and other criminal investigations.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByrjcUU2aduad0xVRDZXaXB3eDA/view?usp=sharing
This link shows video stills of the mall owner doctoring, sanitizing and “prepping” the crime scene for viewing the next business day.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByrjcUU2aduaVHNtWWoxSXVGazg&usp=sharing
Additional video shows the employees walking past the crime scene(s) like it’s not even there………they had advanced knowledge this burglary was going to take place…..evidence.
We also have video tape of groups persons who visited the mall examining the property in extreme detail in preparation for the burglary, as well as the group who smashed the glass doors around midnight to set off the burglar alarms for the benefit of the FWPD.