Austin Police Officer Gary Griffin was first to respond to a "man down" at an East Austin bus stop last June.

Griffin's dashboard camera shows 24-year-old Joseph Cruz was asleep. When he wouldn't comply with Griffin's orders to get up, a scuffle began.

Griffin punched Cruz in the face multiple times, breaking his nose… and was fired from APD.

Griffin, who has been an officer with APD for ten years and has no disciplinary record - appealed his firing, saying Cruz was resisting arrest.

Thursday we learned that appeal was successful.

The arbiter ruled Griffin should be re-instated as an Austin police officer.

In the ruling, he states, though Griffin did “momentarily cross the line into the use of excessive force - he was not motivated by malice or bias.”

And that APD’s training was not sufficient.

He believes Griffin and other officers need scheduled "re-visits to APD's training school."

"I think it’s a failing of the department," said Police Association President George Vanderhule.

Vanderhule says "re-training" officers is an issue they've raised repeatedly.

"His training was not sufficient to deal with this. The department did not do a good job training or re-training the officer to deal with this situation nor did they re-train this officer in tactics after the tactics that we were teaching new cadets changed," said Vanderhule.

"We hope the department will study this decision, take it to heart," said Tom Stribling, Griffin’s attorney.

Griffin's attorney says he has no reason to believe the chief of police won't act in accordance with this decision.

Though it's a decision - not everyone agrees with.

“Everybody in the city of Austin should be really scared that a guy named Gary Griffin is still on the streets," said Wayne Krause, Texas Civil Rights Project.

A lawsuit based on excessive force filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project against Griffin - is still pending.

And despite this ruling, the future of Gary Griffin is still pending too.

He will not be immediately re-instated.

The city is reviewing the decision of the arbiter.

City officials say they are exploring all options - one includes a possible legal challenge.