Public Safety Commission discusses and recommends improvements to data transparency on sex crimes

During the Public Safety Commission meeting on Monday, members took several small but hard-fought steps to improve Austin’s response to sexual assault.

The commission discussed data related to sexual assault with presentations from the Austin Police Department, the SAFE Alliance and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. Members also approved a recommendation to the City Council that would require the three entities to submit their data quarterly at commission meetings and that would direct the city manager to coordinate with the Collective Sex Crimes Response Model (CSCRM) Project to find a permanent location to house the combined data.

This collaboration on publicly accessible data represents an ongoing shift toward a more system-oriented approach to reforming Austin’s sexual assault response systems. During his presentation, District Attorney José Garza highlighted the improved communication between the DA’s Office, APD, and community experts and advocates. One key piece of this shift was the return of both entities to the Austin-Travis County Sexual Assault Response and Resource Team (SARRT), after prior leaders had chosen to leave.

“Once again, the SARRT is playing a critical role in holding the ecosystem that serves survivors accountable,” Garza said.

Hanna Senko, a plaintiff in a recent survivor lawsuit against the city who now serves as a consultant and project manager to APD on the CSCRM, told the Austin Monitor that the accessibility of this data had been an important component of the settlement: “Sharing this data with the Public Safety Commission was a significant priority for many survivors. … Transparency is crucial, and this step ensures agencies are being open with the Austin community, keeping residents informed, and striving to foster trust.”

Commission Chair Nelly Paulina Ramírez noted that the commission had wanted to launch these presentations for nearly six months but had struggled with determining the best format to approach all of the data and determine trends.

“Having this data public facing all together in one place is important. It is not a perfect solution at this point, but it is … an exciting place to start,” she said on Monday.

“We’re hoping that in future meetings we can have more conversations about data correlation … so that we can create a little bit more of a cohesive story,” she added. “The recommendation language is purposely broad at this point so that we can have some flexibility.”

Deanna Lichter, commander of APD’s Sex Crimes Unit, compared data on calls for service during the final six months of 2023 and 2024, highlighting an increase in reporting. “This is a good thing. … Traditionally, historically, sex-related crimes have been under-reported,” she said.

APD illustrated both victim and suspect data for these time periods by demographics and type of crime. “We work indecent exposures, lewdness calls, invasive … photography. … All of these cases are investigated with as much zeal and vigor as we investigate the higher-level offenses because we believe that there’s a starting point for these perpetrators and if we can … identify them early and seek justice … then we’re going to hopefully make some impacts,” Lichter said.

Lichter also spoke about paused cases, referencing previous alarming trends both within APD and nationwide in which a high number of sexual assault cases were given “exceptional clearance” – situations where law enforcement had enough evidence to support an arrest, but did not do so.

“Previously and historically there was, nationwide, an issue with clearing cases exceptionally. And now we see that we’re more appropriately stopping cases when we’re not getting the victims to engage with us any further,” she said.

Robin Henderson, who served as interim chief of police until recently, highlighted the department’s recent, bilingual PSA efforts related to sexual assault.

Coni Stogner, co-chief program officer of community and housing with the SAFE Alliance, and Paula Marks, SAFE’s director of forensic nursing, presented data on staffing and patient services from December 2024. Marks emphasized that SAFE aims to provide survivors with a menu of options for care, regardless of whether they choose to report their assault to law enforcement.

Garza, who pledged to reform the county’s response to sexual assault when he ran for office in 2020, highlighted improvements in the number of sexual assault convictions secured by his office. These included rejoining the SARRT and embedding a prosecutor within APD to work on sexual assault cases.

“In 2023 and 2024 … (after criminal courts reopened post-Covid), the District Attorney’s Office has doubled the number of convictions in sexual assault cases from any year in the six preceding years,” Garza said.

“We must never forget that we have made this progress because, for too long, survivors of sexual assault were denied justice,” Garza said. “As a result, they organized, they demanded and eventually they sued both APD and the District Attorney’s Office in order to win these changes. We should forever be grateful for those sacrifices.”

Garza also noted that this progress was “still fragile,” highlighting challenges with the state and federal governments.

“Both the Austin Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office rely heavily on federal support to serve victims of crime and investigate and prosecute their cases. … The recent threats to federal grants by the Trump administration pose a significant threat to survivors of sexual assault in our community,” he said.

Garza added that, in his office alone, five victim counselors, one embedded attorney and one investigator rely on federal support. He also referenced a recent proposal from the Texas Attorney General’s Office that would require prosecutors to turn over case files, including confidential victim information.

“This intrusion is not only unconstitutional, but it threatens to undo the trust that we have been working to build with survivors of sexual assault,” Garza said.

While the commission ran out of time to finish its discussion, members highlighted several issues they wanted to examine more at future meetings.

Commissioner Yasmine Smith said she wanted to discuss how new state and federal policies would impact reporting for victims with complex immigration statuses. She said she also hoped to hear more about potential trends surrounding date rape at local bars and clubs, and about the experiences of unhoused Austinites seeking resources after an assault.

Commissioner Pierre Nguyễn indicated his support, adding, “The under-reporting is probably happening mostly from those marginalized communities.”

The commission was also slated to discuss a recent progress report from the CSCRM. That program was launched by APD in 2023 with a goal of implementing recommendations from an external review of the city’s sexual assault response and agreements from the recent settlement with survivors. Due to a lack of time, this item was pushed to the next commission meeting on March 3.

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