AUSTIN, Texas — Austin police officers received more than triple the number of complaints for racial profiling in 2019 compared to 2018.
A new report, filed by Police Chief Brian Manley, indicates the department’s Internal Affairs Division received eight formal complaints and 40 informal complaints of racial profiling in 2019.
In 2018, the department had a total of 13 formal and informal complaints.
Of the eight formal complaints in 2019, four were investigated and dismissed. Three are still pending, and one was “sustained,” meaning enough evidence existed to establish misconduct by an officer.
“We have an issue when it comes to racial profiling here in Austin,” said Chas Moore, executive director of the Austin Justice Coalition. “I think we're going to have to get creative in making sure that we can curb these numbers and make sure these numbers go down as much as they can … still allowing officers to do their job.”
The Austin Police Department was not ready to comment on the report on Friday afternoon. A spokesperson for the department said they needed more time to analyze the data.
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Ken Casaday, president of the Austin Police Association, said he’s not surprised by the numbers.
“What that also shows you is that our city is getting bigger and bigger and more people are moving in. So that number probably will go up every year until the city of Austin stops growing,” Casaday said. “What would be troubling to me is that people are getting sustained on and getting fired and getting days off for any type of racial profiling.”
Casaday said things like body and in-car cameras, as well as data reporting, are mechanisms in place to help catch racial profiling.
“A lot of these complaints that you read, people just feel like they're being treated unfairly,” Casaday said, “and it's getting counted as racial profiling. But it's really – it's a separate complaint from actually being racially profiled.”
In January, a report found people of color were stopped and arrested at higher rates.
After that report, Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk also released a memo with the report addressing the findings.
"The recommendations in this report align with those expectations and present an opportunity for the police department, under Chief Manley’s leadership, to build upon efforts that have been started in the past years and make every effort to address racial and ethnic disparities, to strengthen trust with the communities that have been negatively impacted by these practices, and advance their vision and mission for the department to effectively protect and serve all the communities in Austin," Cronk said.
The City Manager’s Office did not comment on Friday’s report.
You can read the full report on the City's website.
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