Community groups demand permanent end to APD-DPS partnership

Community groups are denouncing the city’s decision to resume its controversial policing partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Groups including the Austin Justice Coalition, Grassroots Leadership and the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance are calling for a permanent end to the Austin Police Department’s partnership with DPS.

Last week, the groups hosted the first in a series of neighborhood meetings at the Little Walnut Creek Library in the Rundberg area to hear from residents about how the law enforcement partnership affected their daily lives.

“We’re partnering with local organizations to host neighborhood meetings (in) areas that have been heavily impacted and profiled by DPS,” Austin Justice Coalition wrote in a post to Instagram last week. The group is calling on City Council to end the partnership permanently.

“While the council may not have started it, they have the power to make sure it never comes back,” the post reads.

The coalition will host two additional meetings this week. The second will be held at the Virginia Brown Recreation Center (7500 Blessing Ave.) on Tuesday. The third and final meeting will be held at the Ruiz Branch Library (1600 Grove Blvd.) on Thursday. The meetings will begin at 6 p.m.

Austin Justice Coalition Executive Director Chas Moore told the Austin Monitor that thus far the feedback about the partnership has been negative. “Community members, all over, are overwhelmingly against this (Mayor Kirk) Watson DPS deal,” Moore said.

The partnership raised questions from Council members who relayed concerns from constituents in East Austin who felt over-policed. A month into the agreement, data indicated Black and Latino drivers were disproportionately targeted in the operation. The arrangement ended temporarily in May, when state troopers were reassigned to the border following the expiration of Title 42.

The city’s Thursday news release announcing the resumption of the program said the departments will “pivot their deployment strategies in response” to feedback from Watson and Council members. Instead of focusing on specific areas, state troopers will be deployed by the police department based on greatest need. Austin Police Department has touted the troopers’ effect on traffic enforcement and in reducing violent crime.

The coalition has denied that the partnership accomplished those goals.

“While the stated goals for this partnership included decreasing violent crime, decreasing traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities, and decreasing 9-1-1 call response times, none of the activities of patrolling DPS troopers appeared aimed at these goals,” the group wrote. “Instead, DPS troopers conducted mass pretext traffic stops, fishing for reasons to drag people into the criminal legal system, swept homeless encampments to ticket unhoused Austinites, and cited and arrested people for minor offenses that posed no threat to public safety.”

Moore said efforts to “pivot” the partnership will be futile. He said the majority of residents he speaks with agree that a partnership with the Department of Public Safety isn’t the way to keep Austin safe.

“While over-policing, police violence/brutality and just blatant disregard of humanity by law enforcement have been issues that have plagued Black and brown communities for far too long, I want to be clear that no citizen or resident of the city of Austin should have to live under a police state,” Moore said.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.