The Austin Police Department has altered its training and procedures in response to a growing consensus among experts that much of crime is linked to untreated mental illness. As a result, all new cadets in the Austin police academy receive 40 hours of training on mental health and on responding to situations involving people with […]
Austin Police Department
the law enforcement entity for the City of Austin.
Posted inPolice
City releases police body camera solicitation
The Austin Police Department moved closer to kicking off its highly anticipated body camera pilot program on Monday, when the city quietly released a solicitation for contract bids online. The contracts would be for the “purchase, implementation, and support” of the anticipated 500 body cameras to be rolled out over a four-month period next year, […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Austin police talk ‘open carry’ at safety commission
The Austin Police Department expects to be fielding more gun-related 911 calls after Texas’ recently passed open carry law takes effect in January. The new law allows licensed gun owners to have their weapons visibly holstered in public, but many people may continue to be alarmed by those who choose to pack heat openly. In […]
Posted inPublic Safety
APD outlines body camera policy in forum
Amid calls for increased scrutiny of law enforcement across the nation, City Council has decided that the city should purchase body cameras for the Austin Police Department in the coming months. What that rollout and the policies that govern it will look like were the subject of a public meeting that the department held Monday […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Police monitor talks body cameras on task force
As the Austin Police Department prepares to roll out a body camera pilot program in the coming months, city Police Monitor Margo Frasier and law enforcement experts from across the nation are tackling the ethical and legal questions that come along with the technology. Frasier, a former Travis County sheriff who heads a city office […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment, Public Safety
City may hire temp officers for SXSW season
As South by Southwest and the whirlwind of events that surround it loom large on the horizon, the city and the Austin Police Association are discussing ways to cover the festival season without pulling many officers away from their duties. One potential fix involves hiring temporary law enforcement from jurisdictions such as Travis County, Round […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment, Police
Police association proposes SXSW funding fix
Although it is an economic driver for the city, South by Southwest imposes significant demands on the Austin Police Department, which pulls many of its personnel away from normal duties to cover the event every year. The Austin Police Association is now proposing a fix for next year’s festival, due to take place in mid-March, […]
Posted inAustin, City Council, Police, Public Safety
Body camera policies to be scrutinized
After the City Council Public Safety Committee heard from five people well versed on issues surrounding police body cameras, committee Chair Don Zimmerman asked Kim Rossmo, chair of the citizens group charged with vetting public safety issues, to get more public input and help develop policies for using those cameras. Everyone on the panel seemed […]
Posted inBudget
Council scrutinizes proposed police officer increase
City Council members spent over an hour Wednesday grilling Austin Police Department Chief Art Acevedo and other APD staff on the department’s proposed Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget, zeroing in on a plan to add 82 sworn police officers to the force at a cost of $6.6 million. Several Council members appeared hesitant about the costs […]
Posted inBudget
City may add as many as 85 new police officers
How many police officers should Austin have? That is a question that City Council members will likely be wrestling with over the next few weeks as they consider the Austin Police Department’s request for 85 new officers in the proposed city budget – 26 more than it took on last year. According to the proposed […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Record rate of traffic fatalities confounds APD
Traffic fatalities are so frequent in Austin that it’s difficult to keep up. That much was clear at the Public Safety Commission meeting Monday, when a person who had been struck and killed by a car just that morning did not make it into officers’ tally of the dead. As the Austin Police Department briefed […]
Posted inPolice, Public Safety
Public Safety Commissioners ask city to go slow on body cameras
The Public Safety Commission approved a draft recommendation Monday urging city staff to proceed carefully before equipping Austin police officers with body cameras. The commission’s recommendations were fourfold: consider any research analyzing the effects of body cameras on police work; devise a privacy policy to protect more sensitive cases such as sexual assault or child […]