Austin Mayor, Four City Council Members Discuss Upcoming Resolutions To Police Reform

Staff Reports

On Monday, three Austin City Council members and the Mayor held a press conference to discuss resolutions related to police reform.

The resolutions are slated to go before all of city council at their June 11 meeting.

Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza and councilmembers Natasha Harper-Madison, Greg Casar, and Jimmy Flannigan discussed the resolutions that “represent the first steps down a really long road of difficult policy work.”

“We need everyone in this community to look within themselves and confront your basic premises, question your attitudes, think about your privileges,” Harper-Madison said. “We have an opportunity here to set a nationwide example and demonstrate that this one tiny slave-trading town on the Colorado can overcome its racist history.”

The Austin Justice Coalition is asking for the council’s support to cut $100 million of the Austin Police Department’s $400 million budget this year.

During a press conference, Monday morning, Garza, Harper-Madison, Casar, Flannigan, and Mayor Steve Adler revealed the immediate steps to prevent the same police brutality that occurred during recent protects from happening again.

“No more chokeholds. No more shooting at people fleeing,” Casar said. “No more using tear gas at First Amendment Demonstrations. I would hope and expect that it should be policy today and that if we vote on it Thursday, that it should be practiced Thursday.”

Casar introduced Agenda Item 95 on Austin City Council’s Thursday agenda, which includes:

• Banning the use of tear-gas, rubber bullets, bean bags, etc.
• Banning chokeholds/strangleholds
• Delaying the July cadet class for the Austin Police Department
• Using deadly force as a last resort, using de-escalation tactics first, banning shooting at people fleeing
• Reducing military-grade equipment
• Ending no-knock warrants
• Not using enhanced facial recognition

Garza said the council aims to lay out clear goals and hold “ourselves” accountable with item 50:

• Zero racial disparity in traffic stops
• Zero racial disparity in arrests and citations that result from traffic stops
• Zero use-of-force incidents
• Zero deaths at the hands of APD officers

Flannigan noted that the process may be frustrating as bureaucracy can slow the implementation process.

Casar, Garza, and Flannigan expressed support for the Austin Justice Coalition’s request to reduce APD’s budget by at least 25%.

“When we start digging into what these line items mean, it might be more than $100 million,” Flannigan said. “This is not about doing things in a different way, it’s about doing them in a better way.”