UNFAIR IN FORT WORTH: Why Pastor Kyev Tatum Says He Was Pushed Aside for Supporting Park Rangers Before They Became Popular.

 

UNFAIR IN FORT WORTH: Why Pastor Kyev Tatum Says He Was Pushed Aside for Supporting Park Rangers Before They Became Popular. By Black Texans, Inc. | NBC 5: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/proposal-that-would-put-more-fort-worth-police-at-parks-met-with-resistance/3492879/

FORT WORTH, Texas — Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. is asking a question that many community leaders have asked for generations:

Why do some ideas receive resistance when they come from local Black leaders, only to be embraced later when they arrive from somewhere else?

The question comes as the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Advisory Board explores the possibility of creating a park ranger program modeled in part after successful initiatives in cities such as Orlando, Florida (https://fortworthreport.org/2026/07/18/fort-worth-parks-board-visits-florida-comes-back-with-ideas-to-improve-the-city/).

For Tatum, the discussion is both encouraging and frustrating.

Encouraging because the city appears willing to consider alternatives to traditional law-enforcement-centered approaches to park safety.

Frustrating because he says he advocated for a similar concept years ago while serving on the Fort Worth Park & Recreation Advisory Board and believes his ideas were dismissed rather than seriously considered.

“I recommended Buffalo Soldiers Park Rangers in 2024 and was literally kicked off the park board,” Tatum said. “Now in 2026 they are considering park rangers. Get out of here.”

Tatum served on the advisory board during a period when city leaders were discussing ways to improve safety, maintenance, and public confidence in Fort Worth’s park system.

At the time, some city officials and residents favored increasing police visibility in parks.

Tatum took a different approach.

Rather than adding more police officers, he advocated for a civilian-based park ranger model that emphasized education, community engagement, customer service, conflict resolution, cultural awareness, and de-escalation.

His vision included the possibility of Buffalo Soldiers Park Rangers—community ambassadors inspired by the historic Buffalo Soldiers who helped protect and maintain America’s national parks before the creation of the National Park Service.

The concept would have combined public service, historical education, youth development, and park stewardship while providing a visible presence in parks without relying primarily on law enforcement.

In a 2024 Fort Worth Report story, Tatum publicly expressed concern about proposals to increase police patrols in city parks (https://fortworthreport.org/2024/03/13/off-duty-fort-worth-police-could-soon-patrol-parks-will-proposal-improve-safety/).

“When I think parks, I think peace and tranquility,” Tatum said at the time. “I think mental health, refreshment, revitalizing. I just don’t want the police out in the parks like that.”

He also argued that communities should be empowered to solve problems rather than simply assigning more responsibilities to police officers.

“People solve problems. Don’t give police more problems. We can solve this problem,” he said.

Today, many of the concepts being discussed by the Park & Recreation Advisory Board closely resemble ideas Tatum advocated years earlier.

According to a recent Fort Worth Report article, board members expressed interest in Orlando’s park ranger program, which uses non-police personnel to assist visitors, monitor facilities, respond to incidents, and communicate with police and fire dispatchers when necessary.

The rangers receive de-escalation training and focus on improving the overall park experience.

Board members have now asked city staff to explore what it would take to establish a similar program in Fort Worth.

To Tatum, the development raises legitimate questions about how innovation is received inside local government.

“If it was a bad idea then, why is it a good idea now?” he asks.

While there is no public evidence that Tatum’s departure from the advisory board was directly connected to his advocacy for park rangers, he believes the broader issue is one of fairness and whose ideas are considered credible.

His criticism is not that the city is studying park rangers.

In fact, he supports the idea.

His concern is that local voices are too often ignored until another city adopts the same concept. He calls it a lack of visionary leadership.

The situation highlights a recurring debate in public policy circles: whether innovative ideas receive equal consideration regardless of who presents them.

Supporters of Tatum argue that communities benefit when local leaders are encouraged to think creatively and challenge traditional approaches (https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JhGmk8wQw/?mibextid=wwXIfr).

Critics may contend that city boards and commissions routinely experience turnover and that policy ideas often evolve over time as budgets, staffing, and public priorities change.

Still, the optics are difficult to ignore.

A community leader publicly advocates for civilian park rangers.

The idea gains little traction.

Years later, city leaders express interest in a remarkably similar model after seeing it work elsewhere.

For Tatum, that sequence of events represents something larger than a disagreement over park management.

It represents a question of fairness.

“Fort Worth will never become the Best Big City in America until it becomes fair in Fort Worth,” Tatum said.

Whether city leaders agree with his assessment or not, the conversation raises an important issue for any growing city:

Are local visionaries being heard, or must their ideas leave town before they are welcomed home?

As Fort Worth considers the future of its parks, that question may prove just as important as the park ranger proposal itself.