Fort Worth is taking the fight to chronic nuisance properties with a new enforcement team that’s flipping the script on how the city tackles problem businesses and apartments.
The city recently launched its Nuisance Enforcement Team (NET Force), a pilot program designed to proactively target properties that generate excessive police calls and neighborhood complaints. Rather than waiting for residents to file reports, the team conducts its own inspections and pursues compliance before issues spiral further out of control.
Brian Daugherty, a city official overseeing the initiative, says the approach marks a significant shift. “Historically, everything operated in a reactive manner,” he explained. “You submit a complaint, we go and inspect it. Same thing when someone calls 911. This is more of a proactive approach, we’re going out there and checking, ‘Are you in violation?'”
At the top of NET Force’s target list? The Eco Motel on East Lancaster Avenue, which has generated a staggering 478 police service calls between January 2024 and October 2025. The property has become a chronic headache for nearby residents and businesses.
Jazmin Alvarado, who lives near the motel, has witnessed the disruption firsthand. “They’ve had 400 and something calls in the last two years,” she told local media. “We’ll come home at like three in the morning or four, and it’s just lit up like a party, just all police officers because something’s going on.”
Shutting Down Non-Compliant Businesses
The city isn’t stopping with inspections. Fort Worth is considering a new ordinance that would give officials more teeth in enforcement actions — including the power to quickly revoke certificates of occupancy for businesses that refuse to comply with regulations, effectively shutting them down.
Such measures could dramatically accelerate a process that has historically moved at a glacial pace, often frustrating residents who’ve waited years for relief from problematic properties in their neighborhoods.
Beyond the Eco Motel, NET Force has its sights set on several other chronic problem spots across the city. Two adjacent convenience stores known locally as “Rocky 1” and “Rocky 2” on Hemphill Street have made the list, along with the Sandy Oaks Apartments near Sandy Lane and Brentwood Stair Road.
How bad has it gotten? Daugherty says residents are at their breaking point. “They are upset, they don’t want to deal with these issues, and they don’t think it is right,” he noted. “And they’re right. We need to take a different approach so we can get compliance.”
For longtime residents like Alvarado, the city’s intervention can’t come soon enough. The problems at places like the Eco Motel have been fixtures of neighborhood life for generations.
“Ever since I was a kid it’s always been an issue. A lot of crime and a lot of other stuff,” Alvarado shared. “I’ve never known anything good about it. So if the city is willing to do something, I think it’s for the best.”
While the program remains in its pilot phase, its aggressive approach signals Fort Worth’s growing impatience with property owners who’ve allowed their businesses to become neighborhood liabilities rather than assets — a stance that appears to have strong support from those who’ve lived with the consequences.
