Wonder Women

Fort Worth is crushing it when it comes to women-owned businesses

The stats about women-owned businesses in Fort Worth are pretty impressive.

North Texas is the place to be for women looking to own and grow their own businesses, and the numbers are particularly perky in Fort Worth.

The Center for an Urban Future got together with Capital One’s Future Edge initiative to analyze the growth of women-owned businesses in the nation's 25 largest cities. The study looked at three criteria: the number of women-owned businesses, five- and 10-year growth rates for women-owned businesses, and average revenues per women-owned business.

Fort Worth has the second highest five-year growth rate, with women-owned firms growing by 78 percent between 2007 and 2012. The national average for that time frame, by the way, is only 27 percent. Cowtown comes in behind Memphis, with its staggering 116 percent growth rate, and ahead of Atlanta (65 percent), Houston (62 percent), and Dallas (58 percent).

When it comes to revenues per women-owned businesses, Fort Worth is third, with $186,435. Dallas comes in first, with $198,599 in average sales. San Antonio is second ($191,223), Houston is fourth ($181,122), and San Francisco is fifth ($175,766).

The only section where Fort Worth doesn’t land in the top five is the overall number of women-owned businesses. We're all the way down at No. 16, with 29,425. Houston is fourth, with 102,813 businesses, and Dallas is right behind, with 52,798.

“Women entrepreneurs have become a major catalyst for economic growth in cities across the country, but there is still more that could be done to harness their tremendous economic potential,” says Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the Center for an Urban Future.

No kidding. One neat fact in the report is that between 2002 and 2012, the number of women-owned businesses in the United States increased by 52 percent. That amounts to 928 new businesses every day, adding more than 1.2 million jobs and $90 billion in payroll to the nation’s economy.

However, 90 percent of all women-owned businesses in the U.S. have no paid employees. More than 2.2 million new jobs would be created if one-quarter of those businesses added a single employee in the next three years.

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Police News

Fort Worth police officer fired for unjustified use of force

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A Fort Worth police officer has been terminated following his involvement in a use of force incident. According to a release, Officer Matthew Krueger was let go on December 18, following an investigation into an incident involving someone who was videotaping his actions while he was on duty.

On Sunday, June 23, Fort Worth police officers responded to a hit-and-run collision near 1000 Foch St. The incident involved a suspected intoxicated driver who crashed into another vehicle and a structure before fleeing the scene on foot.

While officers were investigating, a woman approached them and used her cell phone to record their actions. Krueger asked and advised her multiple times to move across the street. When she failed to comply, she was placed under arrest.

During the arrest, Krueger used force to take the woman into custody, resulting in injuries that required medical care at an area hospital.

After being treated, the woman was released from the hospital, booked into jail, and charged with interference with public duties, resisting arrest and/or detention, evading arrest, and making a false alarm or report.

Krueger had been with the department for just under eight years and was assigned to the Patrol Bureau at the time of the incident.

The Fort Worth Police Major Case and Internal Affairs Units began immediate and congruent investigations. Krueger was transferred from Patrol to a unit with no public interaction, pending the outcome of the investigation.

After a review of the Internal Affairs investigation, Krueger’s chain of command determined that the level of force used was unjustified and violated departmental policy. Police Chief Neil Noakes concurred and terminated Krueger’s employment.

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