Police, City Council officials break ground on Northwest Patrol Division facility (2025)

Donning cowboy hard hats, Fort Worth officials and police broke ground on the Northwest Patrol Division facility April 8, advancing initiatives to expand and enhance city services for the city’s fast-expanding northern communities.

Located at 3900 Angle Ave. near Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, the about 32,000-square-foot facility will house Northwest Division officers, neighborhood patrol officers, detectives, the Bike Unit and division administration.

“Our population is growing and, with it, our needs,” said City Council member Carlos Flores, who represents much of the area the division will serve. “Public safety is integral to having a thriving city for residents and businesses, so it’s important we step up in that regard and commitment, and we’re showing that right here.”

The 2022 bond earmarked $25.6 million for the project, which will also receive additional support from the Crime Control and Prevention District, collected from a special half-cent sales tax that provides resources to reduce crime. Construction is expected to finish in spring 2026.

The Northwest Division’s operations are currently split between a 75-year-old police facility at 2500 N. Houston St., which is expected to be demolished, and a facility on North Main Street that the city leases for about $151,000 a year, according to a 2023 city contract.

“The new facility will allow us to streamline our operations, which will in turn lead to enhanced service, improved efficiency and better communication across our teams,” said Randy Molina, commander of the Northwest Division.

If and when officials deem it necessary, the facility could be expanded to fit the entirety of the property, which is about 2.6 million square feet.

“We’re going to need every single square foot,” Flores told attendees at the groundbreaking. “With the growth we’re trying to manage, our police department, our men and women in blue, are having to grow with our city.”

The facility will shorten call-response times for northwest Fort Worth residents like Tina Wallen, who lives near the Marine Creek Ranch neighborhood just north of Interstate 820. The area falls outside Fort Worth police’s central “loop” — mostly defined by the I-820 loop — where the majority of crime and police activity happens, meaning it’s prone to longer response times.

Wallen is a volunteer for Code Blue Citizens on Patrol, a city community policing program where citizens help deter crime by patrolling in their neighborhoods and reporting suspicious activity. The new facility will include a community meeting room for groups like Citizens on Patrol.

The Northwest Division also patrols District 7, which spans from the Cultural District to communities near Lake Worth and White Settlement. The district is represented by City Council member Macy Hill, who also spoke at the groundbreaking.

The facility is another example of the city expanding its services to growing communities to the north. In late March, officials broke ground on a new, far north library outside Haslet, which was also funded by the 2022 bond.

A few weeks prior, Crime Control and Prevention District officials devoted $500,000 to the Far North Patrol Sector Pilot Program. The program will move patrol officers, who are currently located in the North Patrol Division office, about 15 minutes north to the Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport.

Police are expected to move into the airport in late spring, cutting call response times by up to 20 minutes for neighborhoods like Sendera Ranch, home to an estimated 27,000 people.

“We’re graduating more police officers from the academy and also from the lateral classes, but it takes time to get those officers out in the field,” Flores said. “In the meantime, we’re doing this allocation and sharing of resources.”

Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601.

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