APD training academy continues to resist outside recommendations for reform

Despite several interventions and some progress, the Austin Police Department training academy continues to struggle with long-standing issues, including sworn staff resistance to civilian staff and outside instructors, the curriculum review process, a high cadet attrition rate and a lack of transparency.

These are among the preliminary findings from an ongoing audit by Kroll Associates of the 148th cadet class, due to graduate in early September. The outside consulting firm, which has conducted several reviews of the Austin Police Department in recent years as part of a broader push to “reimagine” public safety, briefed the city’s Public Safety Committee on Monday. 

Kroll also is working with the department to establish internal processes that sustain reforms established in the wake of the training academy’s temporary closure in 2020. That closure followed mass protests against police violence and racial injustice, at which police officers injured dozens of protesters. 

Kroll Managing Director Dan Linskey told committee members that the training academy has improved, including elimination of Marine-type bootcamp activities in a move toward a guardian-style of policing; updating its curriculum to include racial equity training and a class focused on the history of police and race in Austin; and improving cadet safety measures.

But Linskey identified several concerns, too, including pushback from sworn officers to reform efforts by civilian leaders, such as outgoing Training Academy Division Manager Anne Kringen and members of the Academy Curriculum Review Committee. 

“There’s a resistance to have sworn police officers listen to civilians who they feel don’t have the same experience,” he said. 

Linskey also pointed to attrition in the current cadet class, which started with 34 members and now has just 14. 

And Mark Ehlers, another Kroll managing director, conceded that the department hasn’t followed internal audit protocols, which Kroll developed in March 2022. Those protocols require the department to report to City Council the progress of each cadet class and of ongoing academy reforms. 

District 10 Council Member Alison Alter chided police leadership for not taking up this mantle.

“This is what helps us to understand if we’re on track, and these reports are really important, because I care about the product that you all are working on,” she said. 

Assistant Police Chief Jason Staniszewski acknowledged these concerns, saying the staff tensions were “unacceptable” and that the department would comply with the internal audit protocols during future cadet classes. 

Meanwhile, Kroll is working with the police department to ensure these reforms – and others in the future – are maintained. 

To this end, Kroll consultants are meeting with training academy leadership twice monthly to address outstanding issues. These include improving the relationship between Austin Police Department instructors and outside community subject matter experts, as well as implementing Kroll’s recommendation that the Academy Curriculum Review Committee be replaced with two new advisory groups, as the Austin Monitor previously reported. 

Staniszewski told committee members that the training academy’s highest priority was curriculum review and reform. 

“I know we have quite a bit of work left to do, and we’ll continue to define the process for curriculum and video review implementation,” he said.

Police department leadership will update the Public Safety Committee on this work at its Aug. 7 meeting, according to a June 12 memo from interim Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills to Council.

Kroll expects to issue its final audit report on the 148th cadet class in September. Its consultants will brief the committee on its findings, and police leadership will respond to them, at the Oct. 16 meeting. 

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