In an effort to provide city council with resources needed to
pursue a better managed city, a coalition of people are organizing under the
banner: Manage ATX Better. I was asked to cull
pertinent info re: APD.
Powerful testimony was given as to the myriad of mis-management
issues at the public’s public hearing (city council wouldn’t grant one). Quotes
and video clips here.
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General question to consider: Councils prior 10-1 did not provide a written evaluation for the
city manager; so how can our present council know if Ott’s met or not met
previous expectations?
APD Prior to Ott:
1997 – 2006: Austin police expenses were more than two times higher
than Texas -and comparable national- cities; it increased 84% in that
timeframe.
2000 – 2010:
·
Public safety
spending increased 45% - spending
on all else in the general fund went up 2%: The decade’s national average
increase for police spending was 28%.
·
Sworn
personnel increased 37.4% during a period when Austin's population increased by 19.7%:
During this time, crime went down proportionally to population rise and our
officers are getting paid increasingly more per capita than in other cities. In
2013, Cmbr. Spelman, displayed a chart showing a fairly consistent number of
dispatch calls from 1999 to 2013 – despite the total Austin population growing
significantly since 1999; and no increase in violent crimes in that timeframe.
·
APD’s budget
increases 50%
Jan. 2008: Marc Ott Becomes Austin’s City Manager
2008-2016:
·
APD budget
increases 60%: in an 8 year
v. 10 year span (2008-2014 population growth: 19%)
·
33% increase
of city budget, ½ of APD’s budget
·
47% increase
of general fund; APD’s portion went from 37.5% (in 2007) to 43%: a 5.5%
increase such that other GF services were cut. Fire portion of GF remains
stagnant while EMS, woefully underfunded already, was increased only 1.5%
·
Staff
increase of 27.5%...416
officers (from 1515 to 1931 sworn, outpacing population growth): APA wants 360
more in the next 4 budget cycles
·
42.8% of our
general fund is dedicated to APD - the highest it’s ever been. (71% is the total public safety
portion of GF)
·
11% of our
city’s budget is dedicated to APD - disproportionately higher than most cities (San Antonio’s is
5.3%)
APD STAFFING METRICS and Consultant Reports:
The APA-touted staffing metric of "2 officers per 1000
residents" has been cited by experts as baseless. Ott's previous employer,
Ft. Worth, passed an ordinance to codify use of the “Control Allocation Model”
developed by Justex Systems (consultants they hired), which is akin to what our
$315,000 consultants, MGT, suggested we
do in June of 2008 – six months after Ott started here. These
correctly take into account the additional factors besides population: crime
challenges, categories of crime, population, density/sprawl/geography, economic
factors, et al.
The report cited the "2 per 1000" metric of “being of
little value” in that it does “not provide insight into how officers are used”
and that it’s “not based on an objective assessment of policing needs in Austin.”
It went on to say we were already at adequate staffing levels when compared to
like-cities, that we were way-outspending on our police, confirmed that
our excessive expense was "driven by the labor contract with officers,”
and don't have enough detectives to solve crimes. We have been and are STILL
under the national average for solving violent crimes; yet we have increased the number of detectives.
No city in Texas uses a simplistic metric
formula for police staffing except Dallas. El Paso uses the MGT guidelines; San
Antonio goes by FBI crime trends, and Houston looks to public satisfaction as
the driver. And San Diego, one of the national cities comparable to Austin in
many consultant reports, used to go by the “2 per 1000” metric but changed to
an MGT-type model and crime has gone down.
The 2012 PERF (“Police Executive Research Forum”) report also debunked the "2 per
1000" metric and delved into the wasted resources on security alarm responses,
the third most common response - 99% of which are false. Yet, although it’s
fairly easily addressed, we have failed to implement any measures to fix it and
therefore cannot justify adding more patrol officers unless we do.
Studies show spending more on police doesn’t make a city safer:
Detroit and St. Louis top the chart on police expenditures, and both top the
violent crime tables; Baton Rouge and Tulsa have about the same violent crime
rate, but Baton Rouge spends $538 per resident on police and Tulsa spends $193.
Austin, as of 2014, spends $427 per resident on police.
“The police represent just one aspect of public safety,
and…other programs and services may actually make us all a lot safer at a much
lower cost…” – Grits for Breakfast
In every budget, APD does a “GOAL” sheet listing their pledge to
reduce specific crimes by 1-2% (like collisions and fatalities); decrease
complaints and increase training hours. Very little gains are made in these
small areas, but more importantly is there is no goal to increase crime rate
clearance; which decreases crime.
Since he took office in Jan. 2008, instead of curbing the
unsustainable growth of APD, Marc Ott increased the Austin Police Department’s
budget by 60% - encompassing a much higher than average 11% of the total city
budget; increased its percentage of the general fund by 5.5% and its staffing
by 27.5% at time when violent crime is stagnant with population adjustment. We
pay our officers one of the highest salary rates in the nation per capita plus
an extremely healthy pension plan (not to mention plenty of overtime).
Meanwhile, APD has not decreased racial profiling*, excessive use of
force/excessive show of force, nor crime / nor increased its crime-clearance
rate; nor has its relationship with the community measurably improved. Such
high rewards for so little accountability.
"Generally, how can a department that cannot police itself adequately, be trusted to police other
individuals?" – Chief Art Acevedo, 11/5/2009
BUDGET PROCESS:
Regarding APD’s huge portion of the budget, Cmbr. Spelman said,
“that sort of decision is basically made by the city manager and staff and department
heads, way in advance of when we get to pass the budget. And that decision is
so big, involving so many millions of dollars, that we simply don't have the
opportunity to move that stuff around.”
The Solution: Negotiate salaries within the city budget – not with APA, so
that the biggest chunk of the general fund isn’t set in stone every year before it's
even drafted.
KEYPOINT-GATE: A seven-month saga
-- Ott's mishandling of the fallout from the APD shooting death of Nathaniel
Sanders, II, displayed a serious lack of leadership. He mislead the public,
withheld the full independent investigation from the public and scapegoated his
city attorney; sparking a lawsuit, public backlash and a harshly-worded letter
from federal Judge Sam Sparks. Not an isolated incident, he also sought to cover-up an internal ethics survey from
council.
*watch Police Monitor Margo
Frasier’s recent presentation on profiling (Item 5, 20:30 in).
UPDATE: (from an April 12, 2016 email I sent Mayor and Council):
UPDATE: (from an April 12, 2016 email I sent Mayor and Council):
Thank you Council, for starting to ask questions about staffing in response to the expert reports that say we are not understaffed.
It's clear by APD's reaction that they are scared you are paying attention to the actual facts.
It should be expected that APD does the exact opposite of what the experts say to do -- they are nothing if not predictable. :-(
Stealing detectives for patrol flies in the face of good policing. The additional detectives installed in Ott's tenure haven't managed to increase our under-national-average case clearance rate; and now it may get worse by taking them off crime-solving.
EVEN IF you were to use the false "2 per 1000" metric, we are already OVER that! Did Ott not notice??? 4/1/2016 population is 926,426 and our current sworn staff -before the NYPD additions and stealing from the detective pool- is at 1931. "2 per 1000" would mean we only need 1853!!!
Don't let the Chief and Marc Ott get away with this hail mary pass attempt to keep you on board with their mantra that more patrol officers are always better. Call their bluff.
Let's be SMART on crime.
