Public Notice: Not Good, Not Getting Better

The relationship between APD and the community is not good, and is not getting better: Officers confront protesters outside APD headquarters on June 4, 2020 (Photo by John Anderson)

Anytime anyone so much as runs a red light within the Austin city limits, social media goes all atwitter about how it's all because of police defunding (never mind that there never was such a thing), so it wasn't hard to predict the twit-storm that followed Saturday night's "street racing" idiocy – nor the attempts to tie the slow police response to the ongoing police contract negotiations. Mayor Kirk Watson, it seemed to me, struck exactly the right tone in his statement released Monday morning:

"As the Austin Police Depart­ment has stated, the street takeovers over the weekend were illegal and outrageous; they will result in arrest. I'm relieved that the injured police officer is doing OK and the vehicle damage was limited." But also, "The Austin Police Association posted some false comments on Sunday that appeared to wrongly conflate this illegal incident with important community conversations about safety and oversight. Twitter is not an appropriate forum for contract negotiations, and no Austinite should ever accept the false choice between public safety and responsible policing – Austin can, and will, have both."

And that's the tightrope the City Council will try to walk today as it considers an ordinance that would codify – without the police union's consent or consultation – the terms of officers' employment, and of the civilian oversight that they would work under, once the current police contract expires on March 31, assuming no new contract is agreed on before then. On the one hand, Council wants to provide the pay and benefit scales, and especially the retirement benefits, that are in the current contract, to avert a mass retirement in the coming weeks; on the other hand, they want to revive a police oversight system that has been largely neutered by a grievance resolved in arbitration in the APA's favor. Ryan Alter, in proposing the ordinance, wrote on the Council message board that it's "important that we remember that oversight and supporting our police are not mutually exclusive. … Falling out of contract is not something any of us want, but we have tools at our disposal to reduce the harms it produces. We should not retreat to our corners and try to exact as much pain as possible from the 'other side' to prove a point. We are all part of the same community and should do everything we can to strengthen it."

Indeed, the relationship between APD and the community is not good, and is not getting better. And as retirements far outnumber cadet graduates, I struggle to imagine how to make policing seem like an attractive career choice in the current climate. Clearly, air must be cleared, bridges must be built, and perhaps paradigms must shift. It's not at all clear how to get from here to there, but I suspect it begins with small steps. In the post-Cronk era, Council clearly intends to be more in charge of police matters, and Alter and Watson seem to have taken a reasonable first step with this fairly simple ordinance (about 600 words; shorter than this column), which could be a starting point for negotiating an actual contract before they turn into pumpkins on April Fools' Day.

The city's Creative Space Assistance Program will distribute $1.5 million in grants to creative organizations or artists facing displacement or higher rent. They're taking applications through the end of February; see details at austintexas.gov/creative-space-assistance-program.

Lifeguards needed! That's a perennial headline in recent years, and here's the pitch: Pay starts at $20 per hour; ages 15 and up; there's free training, and if you want to train during spring break, as many do, you can sign up online, or at a hiring event this Sunday, Feb. 26, 5-8pm at Fiesta Gardens, 2101 Jesse E. Segovia St. More info at lifeguardaustin.com.