Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 9 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
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.