Davis was tapped to serve as APD chief last summer following a national search and officially started on the job in September. Late last year, Davis announced a 100-day action plan centered on APD's strategic goals. After completing that process including surveys with residents, police officers and their families, Davis spoke with Community Impact about her approach and next steps.
The results of Davis' 100-day initiative can be viewed here. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Residents scored Austin’s safety at 6 out of 10. How do you see the perception versus reality of public safety here?
I look at it as 4 people out of 10 do not feel safe in this city. And so to me, that’s unacceptable. And how do we get better at that? Not only just communicating what our crime really is, I think that’s important—where our hotspot locations are, what we’re doing about it, how we’re addressing crime.
It’s not easy to sit here as a chief of police to say that 4 people out of 10 don’t feel safe in the city. ... What it says to me, is we’ve got some work to do. And that’s through building the community, that’s through communicating what our crime stats are, where challenges exist and what we’re doing about it.
Looking at the data, would you say Austin remains relatively safe among major cities?
Yes, absolutely. And I know Austin likes to think of itself as a small town and a small city, but you’re not. Austin’s a big city. And so to have 1 million people and a crime rate that we do—not that I’m happy with that; I’ll never be happy with that, any time there’s lives lost and there’s shootings those are things we will deal with—but I think overall, yes, Austin is a very safe city.
How will you build collaboration in the community?
When we look at the way we’re going to change some staffing here, getting some more district representatives out into the sectors, those community liaison workers there, that’s important stuff. And so when you can look at that whole list of who we need to partner with, I will certainly be meeting with a lot of them—I already have, a lot of them—but how do we partner with them on a sector level? Does the sector commander meet with them? And all of that stuff’s important.
This is a job, as far as reducing crime, the community engagement part, it is every officer’s role to do that.
Are training overhauls, new staffing models or different recruitment efforts needed to build up the police force?
Certainly. We had the audit that came back from the city about recruitment, and I appreciated that because it gave us a good point to look at where we’re failing, where we need to do better. But we’re also doing some great things. The attrition rate, it’s been cut in half. People are not leaving at the rate they were leaving before, and that is due to the contract, but I think it’s also due to the new executive team we have here, and maybe people just wanting to stick around and see exactly what’s going to be happening within the department.
I put Chief of Staff Robin Henderson in charge of recruiting. We’ve already seen a huge increase in applicants, but does that applicant pool translate into good cadets? Are they physically fit? And if someone comes and takes these tests, I don’t want to turn anybody away; if they’re not physically prepared, let’s get them there.
Are we at the HBCUs, are we at the colleges at the local level? The 30x30 initiative, every academy class we have will have at least 30% females in that class; we’re not meeting those standards, and so we have to get better at that. What is it about this role for women that would be appealing?
People tell me this all the time, that it used to take at least two attempts to get on with the Austin Police Department. It was so selective, and it was so challenging. And we know that policing itself has become a social issue, unfortunately. But how do we bring people back into this role of truly being guardians of the community and doing good work?
What is your role in improving communications and transparency with officers?
It’s pushed from this office. And so to have a new executive team here, they’ve already been at show-ups, officers want to see us out, they want to hear from us, what’s going on. And that’s changed; when you talk generational change, certainly when I came on it was, you never wanted to see your lieutenant let alone a captain, for Pete’s sake. But that’s changed. People want to know what your ideas are, what are you thinking, how are you making my role here better?
We have to be where they are. And that means being in the show-ups, being on the runs, I want to get more out with these cops and show up on runs that they are. And that’s just being more visible with them.
How do you manage the line between officers’ reported fear of internal repercussions or persecution, and community desires for accountability and transparency?
I think I’ve done a good job of that so far. We’ve had a few officer-involved shootings, and as far as that transparency point too, it is important that we get out in front of things sooner rather than later.
I look at the whole disciplinary process here from the time a complaint comes in to the time it’s done, it takes way too much time. And so that’s one of the things that I want to look at changing, and working with [the Office of Police Oversight] within that. That’s not about cutting corners, and that is certainly not about continuing to take things seriously and holding people accountable, all of that. But we can do it quicker, we can do it more expeditiously and more efficiently.
What factors led to the selection of your new leadership team?
It was about being in line with what my vision is. ... These are a group of people that came in and just blew me away. I had a panel, they came in, did presentations, and some of the ideas that they brought just blew me away.
It’s just really exciting to think of having innovative people on this executive team, innovative people with ideas to move this organization forward.
What goals or specific metrics do you have for your three priorities of hiring and staffing, public safety, and department innovation?
I believe June 2 we’re having our executive retreat, bringing in some researchers and some really smart people to help us start managing, how are we going to look at the metrics of this moving forward? So absolutely by the end of the year to have, "where were we, where are we now, and where are we going" to truly set that strategic plan for us specifically under those three models.
It’s certainly something I imagine speaking at the Public Safety Committee, the [Public Safety] Commission and releasing. Again, in the spirit of being transparent, any time we’re moving in new directions, we want to be upfront about it.
Did any results from your 100-day action plan surprise you?
No, because I think even if you look at the small sample of people that it was overall, it was indicative of what I’ve heard at show-ups, what I’ve heard at every community meeting, what I heard talking to council, talking to other people.
These are the issues. And so to be able to say, "These are our top issues that we need to deal with," I feel truly able that we can get our arms around those. And we are. At the end of ‘25, to come out and talk about all the successes that we’ve had and where we’re moving forward, I think it’s exciting.
