Arlington police won’t be standing around at the polls Tuesday, despite concerns across the nation that this Election Day may lead to unrest.
That’s because they worry their presence could be seen, or act as, a form of voter intimidation, Sgt. Alex Rosado told KERA News. Officers will be close by in case they’re needed, but they won’t be posted at actual polling locations.
“We don’t want to do that, we want everyone to freely go into the polling place, feel comfortable, feel safe, so we’re definitely going to monitor but you may not see us and that’s by design,” Rosado said.
Arlington officers will be a bit picky about the calls to polling places they respond to, Rosado said. They’ll answer calls related to violence and voter intimidation but may not answer calls about things like a nuisance.
“We haven’t had historically any serious issues at polling places during elections, but we’ve informed our officers that it may be a possibility,” Rosado told KERA News.
Dispatchers and officers know where polling places are and are ready to respond quickly, Rosado said.
When offices do respond, he said they will immediately notify a supervisor on every call and everything will be documented. They’ll also do their best to stay objective.
“We want to make sure the officers appear neutral and that we’re not picking a side on any of these incidents because that’s not what we want to do,” Rosado said. “We’re also cognizant that our appearance could be a type of voter intimidation, and we don’t want to do that either.”
Police in Arlington didn't report any major calls or disruptions at polling places during early voting, either, but Rosado said a history of non-violent demonstration doesn’t mean Arlington police aren’t getting ready for potential unrest.
“We’re always prepared, like we’ve created a plan in place and I think that’s just part of us being professional and making sure that we are serving our citizens,” Rosado said. “We do have a real-time crime center that does monitor things online and what they see and they haven’t reported any direct threats or anything like that in Arlington, but we are monitoring that and we are watching it.”
Vote counts, especially for the presidential election, aren’t widely expected to be complete by election night. Rosado said Arlington police just move on from monitoring for potential unrest come Wednesday morning or whenever the presidential results are finalized.
And with unrest in Washington D.C. following the 2020 election still fresh on many people's minds, Rosado said Arlington police will also be ready for unrest on Inauguration Day.
“We’re going to continue to monitor until the whole process is done, and I’m sure that come January during inauguration time, whoever wins, we’re going to have to be on alert as well,” Rosado said. “That’s something that we’re going to pay attention to and our real-time crime center is going to monitor.”
Spokespeople for Fort Worth police did not respond to multiple requests for interview.
Dallas police previously said that the more than 2,300 hours of overtime racked up in September were in part for training related to the election.
“We have increased our training over the last couple of months for our specialized response group in preparation for the election and post-election potential protest,” Interim Police Chief Michael Igo told members of the Public Safety Committee.
When District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell Willis questioned the overtime, Igo confirmed it was "over and above" normal overtime due to special election and post-election training.
— KERA News reporter Nathan Collins contributed to this report.
