Safety First: New Neighborhood Health Center in Las Vegas Trail Home to FWPD Storefront

The new neighborhood health center serving the Las Vegas Trail area isn't just a place for healing—it's also a hub for safety, thanks to the addition of a Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) storefront. The storefront will be home to FWPD’s Crime Free Multi-Housing Program, which works to strengthen security in the area’s many apartment communities. It will also provide space where West Division patrol officers can complete reports and take breaks between patrols.

Neighborhoods marred by crime don’t just feel unsafe, they become hazardous to health. When fear takes root, people retreat indoors and avoid parks, schools, clinics and engaging with their neighbors—all building blocks to healthy bodies and minds.

For decades, the Las Vegas Trail area has been a hotspot for crime in Fort Worth. Although roughly 1% of the population of the City of Fort Worth, the area accounts for roughly 4% of the city’s crime, according to the Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Transformation Plan published in 2022.

However, recent efforts by the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD), in partnership with LVTRise, to reduce crime, increase safety and build community, are producing positive results.

Both crime against people and crime against property numbers in the area are trending down, according to Sergeant A.S. Owen, FWPD West Division Lincoln NPO.

“One of the most significant elements of the success our department is having with respect to curbing crime in the LVT corridor is understanding that our job as law enforcement officers is not to simply make arrests, but rather to solve problems and meet the needs of the community,” Sgt. Owen said.

In a unified effort, FWPD’s Lincoln Neighborhood Police Officer team and LVTRise have essentially redefined policing in a uniquely underserved area by creating opportunities for direct and meaningful engagement with youth and families in the community. Thanks to these efforts, traditional barriers between law enforcement and the community are eroding. In their place, a foundation of trust is emerging.

“Whether we are building STEM projects with youth, riding with kids in race cars at Texas Motor Speedway, or sitting with families in charter buses as we ride through the Gift of Lights while listening to holiday music, our presence now means something markedly different in an area once adversely affected by exceedingly violent crime,” said Officer Nelson Ehirim, formerly with FWPD’s Lincoln Neighborhood Officer team and now with the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program. “Everyday our directive is to go out and just have a conversation. A storefront embedded in the community is an incredible resource to continue this mission.”

The Crime Free Multi-Housing Program, which works to strengthen security in the area’s many apartment communities, is making a significant impact, too. Of the more than 7,000 housing units in Las Vegas Trail, 84% of them are in multi-family apartment complexes, according to the Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Transformation Plan. The Crime Free Multi-Housing Program holds property managers accountable for certain measures, such as proper lighting, functioning gates and well-groomed landscaping. It also empowers apartment managers to initiate emergency notices to vacate against individuals committing violent crimes against others on the property after they have been arrested.

“What we have seen is that the community members are slowly beginning to become more comfortable reporting incidents and communicating with the police in the neighborhood when they know these violent offenders will not continue to be their neighbors even after offenses have been committed against them and the offenders are released from jail,” Sgt. Owen said.

Other initiatives making positive headway in the Las Vegas Trail corridor include the housing program known as the High ImpACT Placement Program and the institution of the Criminal Trespass Affidavit.

Safe communities aren’t made by law enforcement alone, Sgt. Owen says. Access to food, shelter and health care all play a critical role in developing secure and peaceful neighborhoods. When those basic needs go unmet, the stress can push people to a breaking point—where poor choices, sometimes even criminal ones, are made.

“The health component that the neighborhood health center brings is a massive step in the right direction with respect to meeting another need of this community that has been a longstanding void,” Sgt. Owen said. “Some of the people in this community are waking up with their bucket of life stressors already 80% full, some even more. What we are trying to do is drain that bucket as much as we can with every interaction we have. The new health center is providing a resource that is going to drain this metaphorical bucket in ways that we could never dream of. Some of the things, such as mental health care, job training and income stability this center is bringing to the community, I believe are going to present opportunities for monumental forward progress for the Las Vegas Trail area.”

By addressing the root cause of crime—such as access to care, housing stability and community connection—these partners hope to be a model for what’s possible when public safety and public health join forces.