Civilian police oversight is growing in Austin. Learn what the Office of Police Oversight has accomplished in our first two years.

Downtown skyline of Austin, Texas. Photograph by F11Photo

In the past two years, the Office of Police Oversight (OPO) has increased oversight of the Austin Police Department (APD) and brought significant improvements to policing in Austin.

Our team of policy experts, community engagement staff, and complaint specialists center the experiences of those most directly harmed by policing systems to enhance accountability, increase transparency, and build trust with the community.

Our annual report is the first publication of Austin police oversight data since 2016 and shares information that has never been made publicly available before.

It’s been no small feat getting OPO to where we are today. Yet, the collective triumphs in just two years — big and small — have made it a worthy endeavor. We look forward to continuing this work in the years to come.

Background

The Office of Police Oversight was established on November 15, 2018. Our mission is to provide impartial oversight of APD’s conduct, practices, and policies to enhance accountability, inform the public to increase transparency, and create sustainable partnerships throughout the community.

The purpose of our annual report is to share how the three divisions of our office — complaints, policy, and community engagement/communications — have worked together to provide independent, impartial oversight. Further, the annual report aims to demonstrate how our office is contributing to make the City of Austin a more equitable place to live. By focusing on data, research, and community input over the past two years, this report informs the public on how OPO improves public safety for all.

To read our full report, click here.

About our team

OPO is independent of APD, and staffed by civilians with oversight, legal, policy, and community engagement expertise.

Complaints

The complaints division accepts feedback from the public related to interactions with APD officers. Public feedback is made up of potential complaints or thank yous and can be considered the bread and butter of oversight work. Complaint specialists monitor investigations conducted by APD to ensure that they are fair and thorough and they also serve as a resource for community members by reviewing complaints, guiding complainants through the process, and providing status updates.

Policy

The policy and research division is focused on improving policing through recommendations and analysis. This division conducts rigorous academic, legal, quantitative, and qualitative research to:

• Recommend policy and training changes within APD
• Report clear and reliable information about APD data and other areas of public concern
• Object to APD practices that negatively impact transparency, accountability, or fairness

Communications and Community Engagement

The communications and community engagement division works to build and sustain meaningful local partnerships. Communication materials and planned community events are guided by principles of equity, empathy, and accessibility.

Highlights from our 2019–2020 annual report

Impartial oversight to enhance accountability

OPO is taking concrete measures to increase oversight and improve accountability in policing by ensuring that community complaints are processed promptly and that subsequent investigations by APD are conducted thoroughly and fairly.

• From 2019–2020, we received more than 4,000 contacts from the community. A contact is a potential complaint against a police officer. Of those contacts, we sent 554 to APD for investigation and 80 were “sustained,” or confirmed by APD that a policy violation occurred. The most common allegation was rude or unprofessional conduct.
• We found that between 2019 and 2020, the number of APD officers disciplined decreased by 21%. In 2019, 200 individual APD officers were disciplined compared to 159 in 2020.
• In 2019, APD did not investigate 43% of formal complaints forwarded by OPO. In 2020, this number rose to 45%. Read more on why complaints are not investigated by APD here. We also found that in 2020, the percentage of complaints that were not investigated by APD increased.
• We objected to policy changes that impacted APD’s ability to ensure that community complaints and subsequent investigations were processed fairly.
• We challenged APD’s decision to decrease discipline for violations of body-worn camera and dash-camera policies.
• We launched a redesigned website to accept complaints or thank yous via an online form and publish community member complaints.
• Prior to OPO’s establishment, APD did not have a policy to release critical incident videos. Since December 2018, OPO has worked with APD to design a new policy that requires APD to publish critical incident videos for the community. OPO also assists in the production of these videos to ensure quality and clarity.

Informing the public to increase transparency

We know that some communities are more adversely impacted by over policing than others. We also recognize that civilian oversight cannot and should not be limited to investigations of police misconduct. To create systemic change that benefits everyone, effective oversight and improvements in policing must be combined with data, research, and community input.

• Together with the City of Austin’s Equity Office and Office of Innovation, we published two joint reports analyzing APD’s racial profiling data from 2015–2018. The results revealed disproportionate motor vehicle stops, arrests, and searches for Black and Latinx drivers compared to White drivers. We presented the report findings to community members and shared the feedback with City leadership.
• We published OPO’s first officer-involved shooting report, which analyzed all shooting incidents involving APD officers in 2018. We found that 7 out of 12 incidents involved Latinx individuals.
• We collaborated with the University of Texas School of Law to create a course for the APD Training Academy on the history of race and policing, both nationally and locally. This training has now been implemented in the APD Training Academy curriculum and allows future and current officers to think critically about their jobs, the authority inherent to their positions, and the historical context at play during their interactions with the public.
• We worked closely with the civilian and volunteer-led Community Police Review Commission (CPRC) to support the development of their policy recommendations and review of critical incidents.

Sustainable partnerships

We know that public safety and police reform begins at the community level. Meaningful involvement and collaboration with local organizations, individuals, and other stakeholders have been front and center for OPO’s community engagement efforts. We’re committed to remaining accountable to our communities and situating our work within the wider historical context of policing in Austin.

We intend to create communities well-informed on policing and oversight in their community.

• OPO continued to focus on building and nurturing partnerships in a way that prioritized equity, empathy, and direct connection. For example, OPO made significant changes to its website, media, and written materials to improve access and address language and digital access issues. These changes involved creating the Know Your Rights video series in 7 languages, conducting user accessibility testing for the OPO website, and ensuring the OPO website was mobile-friendly and searchable.
• OPO also engaged with the public through community office hours in neighborhood libraries and recreation centers in all 10 City Council Districts. OPO also hosted a semi-annual Community Leaders Breakfast to invite the public to learn more about OPO’s work and connect with leaders throughout the community.
• We worked — and will continue to work — with the Reimagining Public Safety task force to spark dialogue on new visions of public safety.

What’s next

• We will continue to build trust and collaborate with the community, City leadership, and APD to improve public safety for everyone.
• We’re collaborating with and involving the community to rewrite APD’s policy on several issues, including the use of force, search and seizure, body-worn and dashboard cameras, mental health response, discipline, and more.
• We’re reviewing more than 1,400 survey responses relating to APD’s current policies on the use of force and OPO’s recommendations. We’ll collaborate with the City of Austin’s Center for Excellence and Innovation and Reimagining Public Safety teams to synthesize the data and will publish the findings in Fall 2021.
• After the success of the first Town Hall on Public Safety for People with Disabilities, we will host a second town hall for this series to continue amplifying the voices of people with disabilities and their unique experiences with policing in Austin.

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