Austin Police senior lake patrol officers Brad Smith and David Becker make their routine checks on at Bull Creek in austin Tuesday, July 28, 2020. [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]▲
Austin police officers and protesters face off on Interstate 35 during demonstrations May 30 in downtown Austin. Some Austin City Council members are proposing moving some money and responsibilities from the Police Department. [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN/FILE]▲
Austin police officers on horseback arrive at a liquor store that was looted during a June 1 protest. Some Austin City Council members are seeking major changes to police operations. [LOLA GOMEZ/AMERICAN-STATESMAN/FILE]▲
Austin Police senior lake patrol officers Brad Smith and David Becker make their routine checks on at Bull Creek in austin Tuesday, July 28, 2020. [RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]▲
Three Austin City Council members have rolled out proposals to shift money and responsibilities away from the Austin Police Department amid protests against police brutality and calls to defund law enforcement agencies.
Council Members Greg Casar, Jimmy Flannigan and Leslie Pool all posted proposals to the council's online message board Friday outlining ways to revamp policing in Austin.
Casar suggested three amendments to the city's proposed budget that would remove internal affairs and forensics from the Police Department and shift money from previously scheduled police cadet classes to programs that prevent violence and other harm in the city. Such programs could include family violence shelters, homeless services, and housing and mental health care, among others.
"These three initial amendments alone would have a $40 million impact — and combined with amendments proposed by my colleagues and future amendments from me — we can reach an over $100 million change in the police budget toward progressive change," Casar wrote in an email to constituents.
Flannigan proposed a plan to reconstruct police operations into separate departments with independent department heads and civilian executive leadership in the city manager's office.
"This could shift more than $90 million from under the control of sworn leadership to civilian leadership and allow for each department to have separate metrics and oversight, thereby creating a way to shift organizational culture and drive outcomes," Flannigan said. "The size of these departments is more in-line with the size of other city departments, putting them on-par in terms of organizational influence."
Flannigan's initial proposal includes departments of emergency communications and technology, patrol, investigations, traffic safety and professional standards.
His second proposal was to move Austin police headquarters out of its downtown building and into other city space that is underutilized. Flannigan said the building could be used to address historical economic inequities in Austin's Black community.
Pool said she was supportive of cuts proposed by the advocacy group Just Liberty, which estimated the city could save $41.5 million by eliminating unfilled positions and cadet classes scheduled for this year, and cut the Police Department's budget for overtime and mounted patrols.
Pool said she also is looking into making cuts to the department's explosive ordinance disposal team and lake patrol, along with reviewing the Austin Regional Intelligence Center.
Structural changes proposed by Pool also include moving the forensics lab and internal affairs away from the department, and shifting police communications, victim services, recruiting and training to civilian leadership.
"Enacting just the first four items on this structural change list results in $36.6 million more in APD budget reductions and gets us started toward the essential cultural change that we need," she said.
After protests against police brutality and calls for Austin leaders to defund police erupted in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Mike Ramos, City Manager Spencer Cronk and the city's financial staff announced plans to cut about $11 million from the Police Department. But they said they could not get more substantive changes in this year's budget due to time constraints.
On Tuesday, Cronk said the current city budget proposal should be viewed as a moment-in-time document, which will be amended throughout the year.
More budget discussions and public input sessions are scheduled to continue through August. The city has scheduled a public input session July 30, a council budget work session Aug. 4, and further discussion at the Public Safety Committee meeting Aug. 6. The city's budget adoption process begins Aug. 12.
Which proposals will become public policy and how has yet to be seen, but council members have repeatedly said they want significant changes made quickly to the department.
"I think it's really important for the community to understand and for us to act in a way that shows that this is about reducing harm and reducing violence, and that is a big part of why we're trying to change public safety budgets, because we want to make things safer," Casar said.