| Dear Neighbors,
After much reflection and with much sadness, early yesterday morning I called City Manager Cronk to express that I have lost confidence in our city's public safety leadership. I respect the men Cronk has appointed to lead public safety as well as their service.However, I believe we need different leadership suited to the challenges we face today and committed to lead the change the community rightly demands.
It is frustrating and painful to see a continued refusal to acknowledge the deeper issues and not just the symptoms. Over the last three and a half years, I have faced roadblocks and resistance from our public safety leaders. This was as true for complex challenges like reforming our sexual assault system as it was for simple requests for basic information about sales of APD weapons or the implementation of a no wake zone on Lake Austin. I have come to realize that if we want to reimagine public safety, then we need to create space for new ideas and we need new, outside leadership that admits we have a problem and embraces the possibilities for change. This conviction was reinforced at Friday’s briefing in the responses by Chief Manley and Assistant City Manager Arellano to my questions. I encourage you to watch our exchanges here.
On Tuesday, I shared my position on APD leadership with my colleagues. You can watch my comments here or by clicking the photo below.
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| I believe we must reimagine policing in Austin. And to do transformational work, we need a new vision of what public safety looks like in our city and how we can achieve it. We need to breathe fresh air into a department that time and time again has come up short – in how it treats survivors of sexual assault, in its response to clear data on racial profiling, in its internal culture of retaliation (as noted in the Tatum report), and in its unacceptable use of force against Austinites (see the District 10 Community Resources on Policing in Austin).
Yesterday during our work session I signed on to co-sponsor five resolutions that set us on a path to reimagine public safety and law enforcement in our community (Items 50, 93, 94, 95, and 96). I offered 10 amendments to Item 96 related to the budget process. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison accepted my amendments as friendly and the Council unanimously agreed to sign on as co-sponsors for the item (the vote will be on Thursday).
I invite you to read the full text of my amendments woven into the resolution here. I would like to summarize them as follows:
- Affirm this council’s commitment to reimagine public safety and law enforcement in our community.
- Recognize that victims services counselors provide an alternative public safety / health strategy.
- Create space to reallocate positions and roles to new city units and departments not currently reflected in our existing organizational structure, such as an Office of Violence Prevention, as other major cities have adopted.
- Require collaboration of the Office of Police Oversight when rewriting APD’s General Orders and expand the use of national practices and community input for the implementation of new guidelines that cover more than just use of force, but also de-escalation, search and seizure, body worn camera and dashboard camera, discipline matrix, comprehensive on duty reporting requirements, language and courtesy, bias, and mental health response.
- Fund staffing to establish practices that use a scoring mechanism for disproportional behavior to identify at-risk officers, assign appropriate interventions, and use in the determination of promotions.
- Set aside sufficient reserve funds to implement forthcoming recommendations from APD-related audits and evaluations.
- Exempt victim services and sex crime unit from cuts unless those FTEs are transferred to another city department or to a newly created department.
- Include additional funding and positions for the Office of Police Oversight and the Equity Office that enables the departments to achieve Council’s goals.
- Introduce outcome-based budgeting and zero-based budgeting as tools we can use to reimagine public safety.
- Require review of all grants received by APD to determine if those funds and initiatives align with and advance Council’s vision.
I also authored two amendments to Item 95 which institutes the 8 Can’t Wait policies. The first amendment expands restrictions on the use of weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, etc. The second includes additional reporting to the Office of Police Oversight and a timeline for reporting back to Council any changes to APD’s General Orders. Council Member Casar accepted these amendments as friendly.
Yesterday’s conversation showed a unified approach to reform. I am proud to be part of a Council that recognizes that we have a long standing problem and is working to fix it.
The items we are voting on tomorrow will set in motion important changes to public safety, but there will still be work to do. My staff and I are working hard to create a process through which our community can reimagine the future of policing and safety in Austin, and I look forward to participating in that process with you. As always, I invite you to share your feedback, thoughts, and questions with my office by emailing District10@austintexas.gov. In order to truly effectuate change, we as a community must make these changes together.
Sincerely,
Alison Alter
Council Member, District 10
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