Mayor Kirk Watson discusses DPS partnership, accountability

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said he "inherited a badly depleted police force" when he took office in January.

He called the DPS partnership in Austin a "practical, innovative way to help."

The initiative was originally launched at the end of March as a way to address APD's staffing shortage. It took a pause between mid-May and early July so troopers could focus on border efforts.

The Public Safety Commission voted Monday to recommend that council move to end the partnership unless certain conditions are met. The resolution calls for specific guidelines related to accountability, timelines and data sharing.

Note, the commission only has the power to make recommendations to city council. Council members could decide not to take action.

KXAN public safety reporter Brianna Hollis sat down with Mayor Watson one-on-one Monday to discuss the program.

Behind the scenes of how the APD, DPS partnership started

"We were seeing crime statistics and response times that we didn't want to see," Watson said, referring to crime trends before DPS stepped in. "We want Austinites to be safe and we want them to feel safe."

Watson said he met with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick after a string of "high profile crime" in the city.

"We took office in January with too few police officers and we were seeing it decline even more over time," he said. "How can you get an innovative response to this that gets us more police officers more rapidly than you get if we just wait over time?"

Critics of the partnership have raised concerns about its inception, asking why it wasn't discussed publicly or passed by city council.

"We've been talking about a partnership, but we never talked about how it started," said Chase Moore with the Austin Justice Coalition, a group that has repeatedly spoken out against DPS' presence in Austin. "It just popped up."

Watson said after he spoke to Patrick about utilizing DPS in the city, the governor's office ended up getting on board.

"It was discussed how we'd utilize DPS. I thought about it for a while. Thought, 'Will this work?' The governor's office then said it was in favor of moving forward if the city was," Watson said. "So I took it to the city manager and the chief. The chief met with DPS to see if they could work together... and came to the conclusion that it could work."

'We have to focus on the positives'

"I feel comfortable telling the citizens of Austin, we're doing the right thing to make you safe and to also make you feel safe," Watson said.

He highlighted APD data showing drops in violent crime and deadly crashes. Data also showed crime rates rise when DPS halted its Austin deployment to go support border efforts.

Addressing community criticism

There have been mixed reactions on APD’s partnership with DPS.

When KXAN dug through a newly obtained report comparing APD data to DPS data, some people we spoke with wanted to see the partnership end while others welcomed the increased police presence.

APD is currently down roughly 300 officers.

The primary criticism came from people who expressed concerns about feeling targeted because of the heavy deployment of DPS troopers in their neighborhoods.

When the program first began, APD sent DPS to areas where police received the most 911 calls for violent crimes. Following several public briefings, the plan was adjusted so that troopers were more spread out across the city.

"Rarely should we say that if something that we start with the goal of achieving good for our people, if it's not good, we have to stop it," Watson said. "Instead, the way we do this is we look, we listen. We see how things play out. If there are unintended consequences, we make the kind of changes we need to make to make the good outcomes."

Watson said there's still no set timeline on how long the partnership will last, but he hopes to keep troopers in town until the police department can fill its open positions.

"We'll keep this program as long as it's being successful, as long as we're in a position to calibrate and even get different and better results as we go along," he said. "And as long as DPS is in a position to prioritize our needs in Austin."

DPS body camera policy

A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper shot a man in the arm after a car chase that ended in north Austin on Monday morning, according to DPS.

If this incident involved an APD officer, we would expect to see body camera video within 10 days, because that's APD's policy.

We had to obtain DPS' body camera policy through a public information request.

Guidelines for both agencies show that the devices should be turned on from the start of responding to a call until the investigation ends.

According to DPS' policy, such video will not be released if it's treated as evidence in an investigation.

DPS guidelines also state agents are not allowed to stop recording when a person makes the request if the recording is part of the investigation.