The chair of the Public Safety Commission on Monday joined the family of a man fatally shot by Austin police in calling for more information from Chief Joseph Chacon. The comments from Chair Rebecca Bernhardt came during Monday’s meeting, after a public communication from the mother and brother of Rajan Moonesinghe. Moonesinghe, a 33-year-old tech […]
Austin Police Department
the law enforcement entity for the City of Austin.
Posted inPolice
New APD-DPS partnership sparks pushback, arrests
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson cited long-standing police staffing shortages, which have led to a “decentralized” approach to traffic enforcement among other things, when he announced last week that the Texas Department of Public Safety would soon begin playing a supportive role to the Austin Police Department. But the partnership has caused consternation among criminal justice […]
Posted inPolice
Austin Police revert to decentralized traffic enforcement approach
The Austin Police Department’s staffing shortages are leading it to take a decentralized approach to traffic enforcement, the city’s Public Safety Commission learned during a traffic enforcement and management update on April 3. Most of the crashes that happen on Austin roads every year occur on highways such as Interstate 35, U.S. Highway 183, and […]
Posted inPolice
City Council delays vote on police dash-cam contract
City Council voted unanimously to postpone voting on a three-year, $3.8 million contract to update the Austin Police Department’s fleet of dashboard cameras, citing concerns about the vendor’s built-in automated license plate reader, or ALPR, technology. “There’s lots of things we do that have some risk, and there’s some risk in this (delay), but it’s […]
Posted inPolice
State police to supplement APD officers amid ongoing staffing problems
The city has entered into a partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety to supplement the Austin Police Department amid its ongoing staffing shortage and a public perception that the city has too few police officers. The partnership was announced Monday, a few days after Mayor Kirk Watson and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick discussed […]
Posted inPolice
Report: APD Training Academy curriculum review flawed, hampered by resistance to reform
A third-party evaluation of the Austin Police Department Training Academy’s curriculum review process found it lacked “a clearly defined mission and scope, which hampered its effectiveness from the beginning,” and that it suffered from instructors’ resistance to reform and did little to improve police-community relations, echoing previous concerns. At City Council’s direction, city staff hired […]
Posted inPolice
City Council takes step to restart Community Police Academy
After a three-year pandemic hiatus, the Austin Police Department’s Community Police Academy, a 14-week program designed for members of the public, may soon resume classes. City Council voted last week to direct city staff to report back on the possibility of restarting the academy, which had graduated 2,716 community members across 101 classes as of […]
Posted inPolice
City announces police pay package ahead of police labor contract expiration
The city of Austin announced a plan to preserve police pay and benefits and to address long-standing staffing shortages when the current police labor contract expires at the end of this month with no likely successor in place. “We are delivering on our promises, and just one week after a Council directive, the interim city […]
Posted inCity Hall
Austin’s interim city manager shakes up leadership team after initial organizational review
Interim City Manager Jesús Garza is ushering in a new era of leadership this week. On Wednesday, his office announced two high-profile departures from city management, as well as four new hirings that Garza billed as “a solid foundation for the future” of Austin’s city leadership team. The departures include longtime Assistant City Manager Rey […]
Posted inPolice
Council adopts ordinance to preserve police benefits
City Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve an ordinance that preserves the pay and benefits Austin police officers currently receive and directs interim City Manager Jesús Garza to come up with incentives for new recruits to the department. Council also directed Garza to develop and implement a program to address the shortage of APD officers by March […]
Posted inPolice
Mayor seeks to add sweeteners to ordinance for cops
At Tuesday’s City Council work session, Mayor Kirk Watson added some details to the police pay and benefits ordinance that will be on this Thursday’s agenda. Council Member Ryan Alter authored the proposal in line with ideas Watson outlined on the City Council Message Board last week. Under that proposal, officers would not only continue […]
Posted inPolice
Ordinance would extend officer benefits if police labor contract expires
City Council will consider an ordinance Thursday that would preserve the current police labor contract’s provisions for officer pay and benefits, even if the contract expires without a successor in place, after the Austin Police Association said it wouldn’t negotiate a one-year labor contract extension with the city. “(L)et me be clear – this is […]