Goal

By the year 2023, achieve zero racial disparities in traffic stops and citations and arrests from traffic stops, and achieve zero use of force incidents, and zero deaths at the hands of Austin Police Department (APD) officers.    

This reform is defined by City Council Resolution 20200611-050.

 

Direction

The City Manager, the APD, the Office of Police Oversight (OPO), the Equity Office, the Innovation Office and other relevant departments will collaborate on developing remedial strategies to achieve these goals, and reporting strategies to show progress toward achieving these goals.    

 

Deliverables and Outcome

Oversee the development of regular analyses and reports on APD policies and practices. This data will help inform future performance evaluations of the City Manager, police contract negotiations, and budget actions by City Council, as well as keep the public abreast of progress on these items.  

 

Status

Complete Actions

These elements of the reform resolution are considered complete as of December 2021. 

  1. Changes to APD General Orders reported when implemented, listed on APD website.
  2. Establish Strategic Direction 2023 (SD23) racial justice-related policy goals in the Safety outcome
  3. Use of the Joint APD Racial Profiling Data as baseline
  4. Develop baseline analysis for future OPO reports related to zero use-of-force incidents and officer-involved deaths
  5. Recommend additional improved metrics or other analytical methods
  6. Report progress toward revised SD23 goals
  7. Provide written quarterly reports
  8. Update City Council on progress and interim recommendations
  9. Lead a discussion at a Council work session on progress

Timeline

March 2021

On March 1, 2021 APD released its annual racial profiling report which analyzed data from 2020. Read the report.

November 2020

The Offices of Police Oversight, Equity and Innovation published the 2019 Joint Report: Analysis of APD Racial Profiling Data in November 2020. The analysis examines APD motor vehicle stop data from 2015-2019 to understand how various racial/ethnic groups in Austin experience motor vehicle stops. Among the report’s key findings:

  • Racial disparities in motor vehicle stops persists and has worsened in some cases 
  • 2019 data reveals Black/African Americans are the most overrepresented of all racial/ethnic groups in Austin motor vehicle stops.  
  • In 2019, Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos were overrepresented in motor vehicle stops by 6% and 2%, respectively, while White/Caucasians were underrepresented by 6%, and Asians were underrepresented by 3%. 

The joint analysis report offers recommendations to address areas where disproportionality exists and to improve data collection. Read the full report on the OPO website.

  • At the November 16 City Council Public Safety Committee, representatives from the Office of Performance Management, the Office of Police Oversight, the Innovation Office, the Police Department and the Equity Office introduced the disproportionality analysis measure page on the Strategic Direction 2023 performance dashboard utilizing the 2018 Joint Analysis of APD Racial Profiling Data as the baseline data. The team also launched the traffic stop racial disparity dashboard, which allows the public to review data released in the latest disparity study on traffic stops. The dashboard allows citizens to plug in their zip code to learn about stops in their neighborhood.

 

October 2020

The Office of Performance Management (OPM), with input from APD, OPO, as well as the Equity and Innovation offices, has developed a Strategic Measures dashboard to track progress on reaching zero disparity goals for motor vehicle stops as well as citations and arrests resulting from motor vehicle stops. The dashboard will be published in mid-November.

OPO is finalizing the 2019 racial profiling report for publication. The findings are expected to be released in mid-November. Quarterly reports will be provided beginning in 2021.

 

September 2020

The Office of Performance Management (OPM), with input from APD, OPO, as well as the Equity and Innovation offices, is developing the data framework and content for a Strategic Measures dashboard that will track progress on reaching zero disparity goals. The hiring process is underway for a data analyst who will play a key role in coordinating a review of all Strategic Direction 2023 (SD23) measures with a race and equity lens.

OPO is developing the 2019 racial profiling report and expects to publish findings in late October.

Changes to APD general orders are now being reported as they are implemented on APD’s website.

 

June 2020

Council adopted Resolution 20200611-050 on June 11, 2020.