Demands have been met with official proposals, which range from cutting roughly $100 million from the police budget and shifting responsibilities out from under the purview of the police to completely restructuring the department’s governance system. The mayor and all 10 City Council members have committed to reimagining public safety in the city, and this week’s vote will reveal which proposals they feel comfortable committing to now and which ones they feel need more vetting. Austin Mayor Steve Adler told Community Impact Newspaper he is unsure how the votes will fall.
Among the more talked about proposals is the effort to move the forensics lab services—$12.8 million—and the internal affairs department—$4.5 million—out from under the police department and into civilian roles. Council Member Greg Casar has pushed for City Council to commit to these changes with a vote this week. City staff, including Deputy Budget Officer Ed Van Eenoo, said last week they would prefer more time to fully vet and figure out how to implement the changes. Van Eenoo listed moving the forensics lab as a “medium-term” proposal and moving internal affairs as a “longer-term” change.
On Aug. 10, Assistant City Manager Rey Arellano, who oversees public safety, sent a memo to City Council estimating when the city would be able to implement a range of proposals if approved. Arellano said the city could move the forensics lab within the first quarter of the fiscal year, or by January 2021. An internal affairs shift, however, would take until late next year to fully implement.
Arellano’s memo provided the first glimpse of a timeline for public safety transformation, something City Council has pushed for over the last few weeks. Arellano noted the timelines could change as staff “fine tunes” how to accomplish each change, from figuring out timing to calibrating pensions and legal issues.
Deputy City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, who is leading City Manager Spencer Cronk’s task force on reimagining policing, told Community Impact Newspaper last week that although moving the forensics lab into its own standalone department would be “fairly easy,” moving internal affairs poses legal questions with which the city will need to take its time.
Rivera-Vandermyde said staff wants to be vigilant about understanding any gray areas and avoiding unintended consequences. For example, Rivera-Vandermyde said if the internal affairs department no longer reports to the police department, it might allow police officers to employ the Fifth Amendment during an investigation and avoid answering questions.
“We’re trying to make sure that we understand all the nuances so that we’re not actually creating the opposite of what we’re really trying to get to,” Rivera-Vandermyde said.
City Council will begin the budget voting process with public comment Aug. 12. The body has until Aug. 14 to adopt the budget.
