Police Contract, Court Ruling to Settle Lingering Police Oversight Questions

The Office of Police Oversight’s operations are in limbo (photo by John Anderson)

The protracted fight over how much power civilians should have to investigate Austin police officers for misconduct is finally drawing to a close – more than one year after voters overwhelmingly approved the Austin Police Oversight Act.

District Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel could, any day now, issue a fateful ruling in a lawsuit filed by Equity Action, who authored the Oversight Act. That decision will settle a lingering question over how much access civilian investigators within the city’s Office of Police Oversight should have to the Austin Police Department’s own investigative records. Without that access, Equity Action says, effective oversight will be impossible.

Meanwhile, in the bargaining room, negotiators for the city and the Austin Police Association are nearing an agreement on a long-term labor contract that regulates not just pay and benefits for officers but also oversight measures. While the Oversight Act lays out what kind of monitoring should exist, those measures are only legal once they’re written in the police labor contract. Both sides say they are working diligently toward a contract (officers have been out of contract for more than a year) and hope to reach a tentative agreement soon.

If Cantú Hexsel rules in favor of Equity Action, the city would have to eliminate the secret police personnel file known as the “G file.” That would mean the city could no longer block civilian investigators from accessing some records of investigations into officer misconduct. Crucially, the records would include those relating to allegations against officers that were substantiated but did not result in discipline.

But even if Cantú Hexsel does rule that way, the city and APA have already agreed to contract language that would partially shield those records. Under a new proposal revealed in the bargaining room July 24, investigative files produced after the new labor contract is signed would not have G file protections, but anything produced before the new contract would remain under lock and key.

The proposal has incensed criminal justice advocates, who see it as undermining a key transparency provision of the Oversight Act. One that is beneficial to the city and APA (in numerous criminal court cases, the city’s legal team has fought to block even prosecutors from accessing G file records; the APA has long opposed eliminating the file) but detrimental to the public’s interest. “That’s not a compromise,” said Chris Harris, president of Equity Action. “A compromise implies two opposing sides reaching agreement. This is two accomplices conspiring to never show the public where they buried the bodies.”

The two sides of the negotiation appear to have reached an agreement on another oversight provision that must be included in the labor contract. Under the new contract language, Austin’s police chief would have one year to discipline an officer for misconduct after becoming aware of allegations against the officer – currently, the time limit is 180 days. Negotiations have not yet touched the final piece of the Oversight Act that must be bargained over – powers granted to members of the currently dormant Community Police Review Commission. The Oversight Act calls for the CPRC to have similar records access as OPO so that the former can function as an oversight body for both APD and OPO.

Contract negotiators have also begun bargaining over wages for officers, another signal that negotiations are concluding. APA’s initial offer, unveiled July 31, asks for a 10% increase to the starting wage paid to patrol officers in year one of the contract, followed by 5% increases in each of the contract’s remaining four years. APA is also asking for a slew of financial incentives aimed at boosting officer recruitment and retention.

It’s unclear how much the pay package would cost the city, but financial incentives twice approved by City Council (which included a 4% raise) while APA has been out of contract cost more than $15 million. It’s unlikely Council would approve such an expensive pay proposal as they prepare to adopt a city budget amid increasing fiscal constraints and a looming budget deficit.

APA President Michael Bullock acknowledged the price tag, but said paying officers high wages is the best way to attract more applicants to APD amid a competitive national job market. “Public safety is the most essential function that local government can perform,” Bullock said. “And we have to compensate the professionals who perform it for the level of risk that they’re incurring.”