In cases where an APD officer is suspended, demoted, or fired, the specifics of the case can be obtained. But if an officer is disciplined internally the details remain secret. They go into what in Texas is called a 'G file.'
Somewhere deep in the Austin Police Department's computer database sit the personnel files of each of its approximately 1,800 officers. Those files include their disciplinary histories, which may include details about unnecessary violence or unethical conduct, Internal Affairs investigations, and the punishments meted out for misconduct. Most officers won't have much or any disciplinary history. But some, almost certainly, have multiple instances of discipline in their files.
It's easy to guess why City Hall might want to do this, as our community is mired in a years-long police accountability crisis. Since 2019, officers have killed multiple people of color in often fraught circumstances, including Mauris DeSilva, Mike Ramos, and Alex Gonzales.
Equity Action's members are pleased with the city's negotiating position on G files, but they don't want to wait for the city to try – and probably fail – to get its way in contract talks. Instead, they're gathering signatures to put their own citizen initiative on this November's ballot that would put the fate of APD's G files in voters' hands.
Although a number of well-respected Austinites served as police monitor – including former City Attorney Iris Jones, now-District Judge Cliff Brown, former Sheriff Margo Frasier, and mayoral policy adviser Ashton Cumberbatch – their gravitas was not enough to transcend the inherent failings of the model, and it didn't avert a continued steady stream of questionable officer-involved shootings.
As soon as the OPO was established, APA began filing grievances against the city for violating the terms of the contract, challenging how the office was set up and doing its work. In December 2021, after at least 20 grievances, the union found a challenge that stuck. It argued that OPO's analyses of the complaints – called"preliminary review" by the office – were in fact investigations, forbidden under the contract.
They say that after the establishment of OPO, as more complaints of officer misconduct rolled in, the type of discipline meted out that would require public disclosure – the suspensions, demotions, and fining of officers – did not rise. In fact, it fell. The advocates believe that police leadership is now finding fewer officers guilty of serious misconduct so that the data from investigations will be stored in G files, shielding the officers' conduct from public view.
To Mitchell, these are incremental steps, ongoing strategic adjustments, made necessary by the maneuvering of the police union."I don't want to say that this is some kind of radical transformation – it's not," she said."This is just getting us back to having a system for change, a foundation and a staff and a process by which we can identify the things that need to change and then do them one at a time.
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