Wise County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 68,632. Its county seat is Decatur. Wise County is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area. Its Wise Eyes crime-watch program, eventually adopted by mostly rural counties in several states, was started in 1993 by then-Sheriff Phil Ryan.
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Wise County, Texas in the context of Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth (sometimes abbreviated Ft. Worth) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly 350 square miles (910 km) into Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise counties. Fort Worth's population was estimated to be 1,008,156 in 2024, making it the 11th-most populous city in the United States. Fort Worth is the second-largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, after Dallas, and the fourth most populous in Texas. The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States.
The city of Fort Worth was established in 1849 as an army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Fort Worth has historically been a center of the Texas Longhorn cattle trade. It still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture and design. USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) is the first ship of the United States Navy named after the city. Nearby Dallas has held a population majority in the metropolitan area for as long as records have been kept, yet Fort Worth has become one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States.
Wise County, Texas in the context of Decatur, Texas
Decatur is the county seat of Wise County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,538 in 2020.
Wise County, Texas in the context of Phil Ryan (sheriff)
Phillip R. Ryan (born August 10, 1945) is a former Texas Ranger and the three-term Sheriff of Wise County, Texas. He entered law enforcement in 1966 at age 21, initially serving as a police officer in Pasadena in Harris County, Texas. He later joined the Texas Department of Public Safety as a highway patrolman assigned to Houston and Cleveland, Texas. In 1976, he was promoted to highway patrol sergeant, which took him to Humble, Texas. He applied for and was accepted to service in the Texas Ranger Division and served as a Ranger in Decatur, which also covered Jack, Montague, and Clay counties.
As a Texas Ranger, Ryan worked many cases that made him well known not only throughout the state, but throughout the nation. He is most notable for his arrest of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, but also was the Texas Ranger assigned to the Ricky Lee and Sharon Green case, two of the most notorious serial killers in Wise County, Texas history.