Jesca Arnold just wants to shine a light on what she thought was a hazardous situation.
Brutally attacked while using the Trinity Trails one evening near the Clearfork Trailhead in 2017, the then 31-year-old graphic designer was assured that efforts would be taken to make the riverside paths safer.
Then, after another woman was assaulted using the trails four years later, Arnold decided enough was enough. With the help of her father, she formed a non-profit, SAFE + Happy Trails, and began researching what could be done to make walking and biking and running on the trails safer.
Last month, her efforts culminated in a donation to the Tarrant Regional Water District of two “smart” poles, or light standards, worth $35,000. They’ve been installed for testing just as the District is conducting another pilot project to study adding solar lighting on part of its 72 miles of trails.
The “smart” poles include an emergency call box, video cameras, sometimes a gunshot detector, and solar-powered lights. They will be monitored by the Fort Worth Police Department.
“I’m glad something is finally happening,” Jesca Arnold said. “The goal is for it not to happen to someone else.”
“Hopefully it will make it a lot easier to get help, or prevent something from happening all together,” she said. “It will benefit everybody.”
Darrell Beason, the District’s chief operations officer, praised the Arnold family for agreeing to be involved in what is a pilot project that is part of the District’s continuing development of a recreation master plan.
Since SAFE + Happy Trails did the initial research on the smart pole technology, the group saved the District time and money, he said.
“It’s remarkable for a non-profit to step up and assume the risk on a pilot project,” Beason said.
A long journey for Jesca
Arnold was taking an early evening walk in September 2017 near the Clearfork Trailhead – which is off of Edwards Ranch Road – when she was confronted by a naked man riding a bike.
She immediately called 911 for help, but her attacker grabbed her phone and threw it into the river before the operator could ping her location. While Jesca tried to run away and fight off her attacker, she was unsuccessful.
Devastated by the event, Jesca initially was reluctant, and somewhat fearful, to go public with what happened to her. Her father, Don Arnold, said the second attack convinced Jesca that it was finally time to act.
“This has been a long journey for Jesca and the family,” her father said. “Jesca loved walking along the trail, it was one of the nicest pleasures she had.”
The Arnolds were aware of the emergency call stations used on many college campuses, but they also discovered how much technology had advanced since they were first implemented.
Don Arnold said several cities across the United States are using surveillance cameras, some of them mounted on light poles, in their crime fighting efforts. He said they are typically integrated with other technologies such as facial recognition and gunshot detection.
Chicago has thousands of these devices throughout the city. The New York Police Department monitors CCTV cameras in the five boroughs. Detroit has Project Green Light. In Atlanta, it’s Operation Shield.
Working with technology consultant Jack Sigler, who donated his expertise, the Arnolds looked at two different companies before selecting ClearWorld. The Arnolds reached a buy-one, get-one free deal with the company.
The smart poles include 600 watt solar hybrid system, a 60 watt LED light, the install kits and preparation for the attachment of security cameras. Gunshot detection equipment will be included on only one of the poles in the pilot project.
The surveillance equipment will be installed by the Fort Worth police, which is primarily responsible for security along the trails. The “prototype validation” poles will be monitored by the FWPD’s Real Time Crime Center.
The TRWD will make the final decision on how many to install, if at all. The vision of SAFE + Happy Trails is to place them periodically throughout the system.
“We look forward to a long-term relationship with TRWD dedicated to making our wonderful trail system a safe and happy place to walk, jog and ride,” Don Arnold said in a letter to the District.
“We have a great opportunity to make our section of the Trinity Trail the safest and thus the happiest in the U.S.,” he wrote.
A bright idea at the right time
Coincidentally, as this donation was being developed and proposed, the District was writing a recreational master plan that would consider installing lighting along some of the District’s 100 miles of trails.
While District officials believe the trails to be relatively safe, and say there’s no “silver bullet” to preventing crime, but illuminating some of the trails and including smart pole technology is “another tool in the toolbox,” said David Geary, chief of the law enforcement division and a reservoirs director.
The District is looking at four regular light standards, both solar and electrical powered, along with a solar-powered smart pole. The test poles have already been installed along Shannon’s Point, not far from the site where Jesca Arnold was attacked in 2017, he said.
The other smart pole was installed at the Real Time Crime Center, where the Fort Worth police can make sure it operates in “real world, real time,” Beason said at the July 16 board meeting.
“What you don’t want to do is put something out there that doesn’t work,” Beason said at the meeting.
The District will look at the life cycle of all the lights and their costs for maintenance and replacement, Geary said.
Potential projects proposed in a recreational master plan, the District is looking at lighting at least three, two-mile “safety loops” along the Trinity Trails: one on the lower West Fork of the Trinity; another on the Upper West Fork; a third on the Clearfork.
The lights would likely be operational from dusk to 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. to dawn matching the proposed hours of operation of the floodway.
If proven successful, the District could expand the coverage along the trails and possibly to the district’s other assets, Geary said.
“There’s no way we could light all of the trails. We can’t do it everywhere, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do it somewhere,” he said. “
Geary said the District will study the light standards for at least 12 months. He said the staff hopes to present part of their findings to the Tarrant Regional Water District Board in a recreational master plan this fall.
The hardest things
The TRWD board and staff praised the Arnolds for their donation and selflessness.
“She (Jesca Arnold) channeled all that emotion, all those feelings into an energy and a desire into making all things better,” an emotional Beason told the board.
At the board meeting where the donation was accepted, Board President Leah King said that “sometimes, out of the hardest things, something really valuable and important (happens.)
“To have the wherewithal to be able to think about others, in the midst of a tragic situation, is incredibly generous,” King said.
In an interview after the board meeting, Don Arnold returned the accolades, saying they’ve found the District welcoming. He also pledged that their non-profit will be there to pursue any solution that does work.
“It’s rewarding for us to be able to turn this into a positive. We’re happy to be part of that journey. … It’s definitely a high point,” he said.
Jesca Arnold is still struggling to recover. While she accepts what happened to her, she still deals with the extreme physical and mental consequences of what happened to her.
She suffers from a loss of memory and balance. She daily deals with chronic spinal pain and migraines.
But she hopes the smart poles they are donating will be helpful to people in less traumatic situations, like those falling off a bike or stumbling along the trail.
As Jesca Arnold said her non-profit’s website states, SAFE + Happy Trails works “so you can RUN FOR FUN and NOT from fear!”
“If I’m the one person who has to face this in order that others are spared the same thing, I can accept that,” Jesca Arnold said.
