Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
This work session featured a briefing by the Austin Police Department and Dr. Robin Engel, a senior research scientist at Ohio State University, on APD's use of force policy changes, data collection and reporting, the 2025 annual use of force report, and training updates. Key changes include consolidating seven policies into two general orders effective January 1, 2026, eliminating the 'Level 4' response-to-resistance category in favor of 'reportable incidents,' renaming 'response to resistance' to 'use of force,' and requiring de-escalation and ICAT/ABLE training. The 2025 report found 2,809 use of force incidents involving 3,083 subjects and 908 officers, with the George (downtown) sector as an outlier, and no substantive racial or ethnic disparities under the benchmark and regression analyses presented. Council members asked about community communication of reporting changes, comparable peer cities, adding Asian/API and other data categories, geographic breakdowns, arrests trends, and crowd-control weapon approvals. No votes were taken; the work session adjourned at 10:50 a.m.
0:07 You are watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor pro, tim cheadle,
0:16 Vela council members Natasha Harper Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, José velazquez, Ryan Alter, crystal lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis, zoe
0:39 cadre, mark uchin, city attorney deborah thomas, city clerk erica brady, and city manager tc broad,
1:00 nine o'clock in the morning on April 7th, 2026.
1:03 And I'll call to order this work session of the Austin City Council.
1:07 We have a quorum of the City Council present.
1:09 We are meeting in the City Council chambers, which are located in Austin City Hall at 3 0 1 west
1:13 second street in Austin, texas.
1:16 Um, members, we have one item on the agenda, and that is a briefing.
1:20 Before I call up that briefing, let me turn to the city clerk.
1:23 Uh, it's my understanding we have someone signed up to speak.
1:27 That's correct. Mayor, we have one speaker, um, on item b one savannah lee.
1:45 Good morning. It's very good morning.
1:46 Got this much room to myself.
1:48 Hi Mayor and council members.
1:50 Thanks for having me.
1:51 My name is savannah lee.
1:52 I'm here with equity action.
1:53 I'm a resident of district one.
1:55 I'd like to speak on the changes to use of force reporting, specifically our concern with how the
1:59 data is being defined and measured on item four.
2:01 Page 14, right now, that data separates subjects from uses of force action in a way that obscures
2:08 what's actually happening on the ground under this framework.
2:10 If one person is subjected to force multiple times by multiple officers or through multiple tactics, it can
2:16 still be recorded as a single use of force.
2:18 For example, if three officers each use force on one individual and that person is then tased, that
2:23 entire incident May be counted as just one use of force.
2:27 That doesn't reflect reality.
2:28 It undercounts the actual volume of force.
2:30 Use masks how many officers are involved, and makes it harder to identify patterns of escalation.
2:35 This approach limits transparency and undermines accountability.
2:39 It makes it difficult for council researchers and the public to answer basic questions.
2:43 How often is force being used?
2:45 How many officers are involved?
2:46 Is force escalating within encounters and is it increasing or decreasing over time?
2:51 Good data should help us understand trends and improve outcomes.
2:55 But when definitions collapse multiple actions into a single count, it prevents meaningful analysis and weakens oversight.
3:01 This framework should be revised so that each use of force is counted individually, and that reporting clearly
3:05 reflects both the number of officers using force and the number of force events within an incident.
3:10 If we're serious about accountability, we need data that tells the truth.
3:13 Right now, this approach falls short of that standard.
3:16 Thank you for your time's in the back.
3:20 Thank you. Alright, well, um, let's take a minute and let, uh, our folks gather and, um, and
3:28 then we'll have the briefing
3:42 for the record. Uh, I'll recognize that, uh, council members Ellis and cadre are joining us remotely.
4:11 Good morning. Morning chief.
4:13 Good morning, sir. Good morning, Mayor.
4:16 Uh, I have a peace offering for you.
4:19 Oh, oh, look at you.
4:21 This is my own hat.
4:22 That's it's about time.
4:24 <Laugh>. I just wanted you to know I do have my own gear.
4:28 Well, you, um, even though I represent, uh, the ohio state yes.
4:32 And we had a little exchange.
4:33 Yes. You still were able to work that in, weren't you?
4:35 Yeah. Um, well, um, good for you.
4:37 Listen, it was a rough night for ohio state fans with michigan winning the national title.
4:42 Bet it was. I think we can agree on that.
4:44 Yes. So thank you for being here.
4:46 Thank you, chief, you wanna kick us off?
4:49 Yes. Thank you all, uh, for this opportunity to talk about our use of force, our task force
4:53 update, and I'm really looking forward to you hearing from robin and her expertise here and the great
4:58 work that we're doing within the department.
5:00 And look forward to any questions you have, robin.
5:03 Very good. Thank you so much.
5:05 Um, I am believe this clicker is for me.
5:09 So for those of you who had not met me before, I'm robin engel.
5:12 Um, I'm a senior research scientist at ohio state university.
5:17 Um, but I actually spent most of my career at the university of cincinnati over 20 years there.
5:22 And before that, uh, four years as an assistant professor at penn state.
5:27 So I've been basically an academic my entire career, but I work with law enforcement agencies across the
5:33 country and around the world.
5:34 I'm helping them to have evidence-based practices, police reform, and using data to make, uh, a better decision
5:41 making, um, for safer communities.
5:43 So I'm so pleased to be here today.
5:44 Thank you so much.
5:46 Uh, what I'd like to talk to you about today, uh, my discussion topics, and I believe that
5:51 you've all received a, a previous copy of this, uh, presentation.
5:55 I'll just briefly mention that I was here, uh, last year, twice in front of, uh, public safety,
6:02 the public safety committee.
6:03 Uh, and I'll just briefly bring the rest of council, um, up to speed on those, uh, particular
6:09 briefings. Uh, I also wanted to make note of a number of use of force policy changes that
6:15 have been in effect since January 1st of this year.
6:18 And then talk about an update on our data collection and reporting, uh, and, and including, um, some
6:25 highlights from, uh, 2025 use of force annual report that has now been made publicly available.
6:32 And, uh, we'll conclude with some training updates.
6:35 Uh, I have a number of folks here from the Austin police who will be helping me along
6:41 the way, uh, as we, um, make note of the changes that have been occurring, uh, and particularly
6:47 with training. And then lay out for you some next steps for our use of force, task force
6:50 and other work that will be doing to move this forward.
6:54 So with that, I'll get right into it.
6:56 Uh, the summary of, uh, previous times, uh, when again, I appeared before, uh, some members of council,
7:04 uh, first to, uh, when I first came in, chief davis asked me to come in and to
7:08 take a look at use of force and do a holistic look, um, top to bottom of what
7:13 was happening in the agency.
7:15 Uh, I reported back, uh, to her and to some members of council, uh, with an initial review.
7:21 And what I found were inconsistencies across the Austin police department and all aspects of use of force,
7:26 including reporting, accountability, and training.
7:30 Uh, in particular, we focused on significant issues with data reporting, the reliability and validity of that data,
7:36 the statistical analysis that had been done previously, and some reports that had been made publicly available.
7:42 Uh, and also, uh, let folks know that there was likely an over-reporting of use of force, which
7:48 is unusual. This is one of the only agencies that I've really found this to be a particular
7:52 concern. Uh, and so we decided what we would do.
7:56 Uh, I had a number, I had 11 specific recommendations.
7:59 Um, but rather than list all of those recommendations back to you just focusing on the three, uh,
8:05 main recommendations. And the first was to develop a use of force task force, including all ranks of
8:10 the police department and a representative from a po.
8:14 We put that task force together last spring.
8:16 There were 15 members of that task force.
8:18 Um, and I was a co-chair with, uh, I believe they're in the room here.
8:23 Um, uh, assistant chief lee rogers, um, and assistant chief, uh, um, Mike chancellor, uh, served on that
8:32 committee with me as well.
8:34 And so we met many times through the year last year, and we looked at a whole host
8:39 of issues. But we started with the use of force policy, which I'll talk to you about, those
8:43 changes that have been made.
8:45 At the same time, we suspended all public reporting of use of force patterns, trends and data to
8:50 make sure that we were getting it correct.
8:52 We are concerned about, as I mentioned, the quality and the reliability and validity of that data that
8:56 had been shared publicly.
8:58 Um, and so we corrected, uh, some of those problems that were in the data and we reissued
9:04 a number of reports.
9:05 I actually have here, um, with me today, uh, dr.
9:09 Sina kang, who is one of the lead analysts from Austin police, who helped, um, with those.
9:15 And also, I'm not sure if heidi witty is with us as well, but she also works for
9:19 the Austin police department, um, and have been working furiously to get, make sure those data were corrected
9:24 and those reports reissued.
9:25 And that's reports from 20 20, 20 21 and 2022.
9:29 We also reviewed and adjusted the use of force policy.
9:33 As I'll mention to you, I'll explain in detail in just a moment.
9:36 Looked at training and accountability mechanisms throughout the agency and that accountability mechanisms in the training.
9:42 That's where we'll be spending a lot of our work this year.
9:46 Um, now that we've moved forward with a new policy.
9:49 So speaking of that new policy, I'll let you know what some of those policy changes were.
9:53 There were a number of policy changes that were made here, um, but I'm highlighting for you, uh,
9:58 the ones that are, I think, most relevant, um, for your, for your, uh, information.
10:03 So first, uh, we have, uh, general order 200 use of force in general order 2 0 1 use of
10:11 force reporting and review and review.
10:13 These policy changes were developed, as I mentioned, in consultation with the use of force task force.
10:18 We also worked with members of a po and city legal.
10:22 Uh, but really the use of force changes in the policy.
10:26 We reviewed over 50 individual agency policies.
10:29 We also looked at a review of model policies from leading national organizations, law enforcement organizations from across
10:35 the country, um, and of course, academic research.
10:38 As an, as a researcher, I couldn't resist the opportunity to see what actually works in terms of
10:43 policies and policy changes for use of force.
10:45 And so we included all of that review as well, implemented in January 1st of this year.
10:51 Uh, all sworn personnel were trained on the new policy by January 31st.
10:56 Actually, I think that 96% were trained at that point.
10:59 Um, and now all sworn personnel have been trained.
11:03 Uh, we also have periodic checks on use of force trends and reporting.
11:07 And something I'd love to come back and share with you as well.
11:09 Quarterly, uh, we'll be taking a look to make sure, because we have made some changes in the
11:14 way that use of force is reported.
11:15 And we're gonna wanna make sure, um, that there's transparency around that, and that we can come back
11:19 and share with you what we're finding throughout the year and not just wait for an annual update.
11:25 Um, this new use of force policy is publicly available on, uh, ad's website.
11:32 The main changes, um, to this policy.
11:35 First, we changed the language from response to resistance, which is what it was typically called here on
11:40 r two r response to resistance.
11:42 We've changed that to use of force.
11:44 We believe that the term use of force is, is, uh, more descriptive of what we're talking about.
11:50 Um, and so we've made that language change.
11:53 We consolidated seven policies into two general orders.
11:56 And you can see on the right hand side of this slide the general orders that previously.
12:02 So you can track the changes that we made to those and then consolidated them into two use
12:08 of force policies. We also updated language throughout and content, uh, and we added over 50 definitions of
12:16 terms in this policy.
12:18 So that would be better able for, for, uh, folks in your community to understand very specifically what
12:24 we meant by particular terms in the policy, but also for the a pd officers themselves.
12:28 And to assist with training.
12:33 Uh, additional changes included a renewed focus and expectation for deescalation and the use of the critical decision
12:40 making model. For those that were here for public safety committee meeting yesterday, you heard, uh, from the
12:47 training com, uh, the training academy folks all about critical decision making model.
12:53 Uh, and here, uh, I'll talk about it just briefly.
12:56 Um, but really the idea here is to the expectation to set in policy, the expectation that deescalation
13:06 will be used, uh, when it's safe and reasonable under the totality of circumstances.
13:11 That's an expectation. So we are doubling down on deescalation, uh, specifically in terms of training, but also
13:18 in practice. Uh, and that's included now formally in policy.