Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus is encouraging his officers who attend church to wear their uniforms this Sunday both as a deterrent to attacks and as a way to reassure congregants.
In the wake of the local attack on the West Freeway Church of Christ last Sunday, as well as the attacks on Jewish communities and church services nationally, Chief Kraus is authorizing and encouraging our officers who attend worship services to do so in full police uniform.
— Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) January 4, 2020
NBCDFW spoke with Chief Kraus and he first decided to beef up patrols around churches to comfort congregants:
This weekend, I put out a directive to our command staff that they needed to make sure our patrol officers were patrolling the houses of worship on their beat and instructed the officers to get out and actually interact with the congregants as time allows to give them reassurance that they’re safe at their houses of worship.
However, one of his assistant chiefs persuaded him to allow church-going officers to attend in uniform. He said:
One of our assistant chiefs Charles Ramirez contacted me that he had an idea that perhaps if our officers were going to their houses of worship on their own time, that we allow them to wear their uniform while doing so as a further measure to help the congregants in their choice to worship.
The chief’s directive comes less than a week after an armed attacker opened fire in a White Settlement, Texas, church, only to be killed within seconds by armed congregants. Sadly, the attacker was able to kill one congregant, and fatally wound a second, before being killed.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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