Citing a lack of information, the Public Safety Commission on Monday declined to endorse the union contract recently hammered out between the Austin Police Association and city labor negotiators. In addition to concerns expressed by some commissioners about shortcomings of the contract cited by activists urging greater police accountability, some members of the commission voted […]
Police
Posted inPolice
Police contract with city heads to vote
If an agreement finalized between the city and the Austin Police Association on Tuesday is adopted, the Office of the Police Monitor will have more power to investigate allegations of police misconduct and Austin police will get a 9.5 percent wage increase over a five-year period. The union will vote on the contract in mid-November […]
Posted inPolice
Police chief describes new community policing focus
The Austin Police Department is no longer recruiting new officers by promising them an action-packed thrill ride. In a presentation to City Council members on Tuesday, Interim Police Chief Brian Manley described the video that the department used as part of its hiring efforts. “It was the SWAT team, it was our bomb patrol, it […]
Posted inPolice
Despite Austin’s crime lab meltdown, Texas is working to clear its DNA backlog
When Wendy Davis decided to find out how many untested rape kits there were in the state of Texas, she readily admits she had no idea what she was getting into. Davis, a former state senator, was first told that there was a backlog by a representative of the state forensics lab in 2009. Around […]
Posted inPolice
Austin’s crime lab failure points to national crisis
The latest audit of the Austin Police Department’s crime lab would read as a comedy of errors, if the stakes weren’t so high. Some concerns in the report released last fall are simpler to fix – equipment failures or cross-contaminating evidence. Reading further though, the lab had flaws in many of its most fundamental operations. […]
Posted inPolice
The implosion of Austin’s crime lab: A timeline
It has blindsided Austin’s criminal justice community. What started a year ago as a few concerns over an audit has spiraled into the permanent closure of the city’s crime lab and the firing of nearly all of its employees. The lab’s failures have added to a decades-long testing backlog, and may have compromised the evidence […]
Posted inPolice
District attorney isn’t making a mountain out of some mold here
Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore is downplaying concerns over the hundreds of Austin Police Department rape kits stored inside boxes that were recently found to be covered in apparent mold. Along with representatives from the Austin city manager’s office, APD and the Capital Area Private Defender Service, Moore briefed the Commissioners Court on Thursday […]
Posted inPolice
Public Safety Commission has a HOT debate
As the city of Austin scrounges for money to hire more police officers, firefighters and paramedics, it shouldn’t look to the tourism industry for help. That was the message delivered to the Public Safety Commission Monday by Bill Worsham, a member of the Visitor Impact Task Force, which recently approved a report endorsing a 2 […]
Posted inPolice
Activists weigh in on police contract as city begins negotiations
As the city of Austin moves forward with the renegotiation of its public safety contracts, local activists are asking for several changes to the city’s contract with the local police union. The contract, which is negotiated every couple of years, dictates pay, discipline and the legal rights of officers. This is the first labor negotiation […]
Posted inPolice
Safety commissioners voice concerns about forensic officer’s firing
Slowly but surely, reported Austin Police Department officials at a recent meeting of the Public Safety Commission, the city of Austin is reducing its backlog of DNA evidence. The total backlog has dropped from roughly 4,500 batches in June to 2,535 now, reported Assistant Chief Troy Gay. That’s made up of 1,686 sexual assault kits, […]
Posted inPolice
Safety commission discusses staffing for APD sexual assault unit
The Austin Police Department’s struggle to indict perpetrators of sexual assault crimes could be due in part to a lack of staffing, according to data examined by its Sex Crimes Unit. For nearly a year, the APD’s battle to clear the DNA rape kit backlog has been in the public eye. At a Public Safety […]
Posted inPolice
APD updates commission on DNA backlog
The Austin Police Department hopes to have the backlog of sexual assault kits eliminated within the next year, Assistant Chief Troy Gay told the Public Safety Commission on Monday. APD will soon begin sending 100 batches of evidence every two weeks to the Southwestern Institute of Forensics Science, the lab run by Dallas County that […]