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Should voters choose Austin's next police chief? The City's Human Rights Commission thinks so

Commissioners voted Monday to recommend Austin's city council require the mayor to appoint a democratically elected chief of police.

AUSTIN, Texas — As Austin leaders and council members work to reform the Austin Police Department and its leadership, the City's Human Rights Commission has approved a proposal it hopes the council will consider.

On Monday afternoon, commissioners voted to recommend that the Austin City Council require the mayor to appoint a police chief elected by the people, either through a special-called election, an informal city-funded process or in the re-negotiation of the police contract.

You can read the entire draft recommendation below:

Voting for a police chief isn't common in Texas. Only a few towns, like San Angelo and Coleman, do so.

In Austin, the city manager hires the police chief, and the city council approves the hire. The public doesn't vote on any of that.

But Commissioner Nathan White said that needs to change.

"Public pressure is a very useful tool, and it can only really be applied toward people that are subject to public pressure. And right now, that does not include Austin's chief of police," they said.

The goal, White said, is to get someone who is more open to police reform.

"Were this to pass, we would get somebody who is not law enforcement but law enforcement adjacent and has experience and who is more equipped to deal with community concerns than someone who maybe has spent their entire lives in a system that we are now trying to reform," they said.

But there is no guarantee an election will get people the chief they want, according to Councilmember Jimmy Flannigan.

"The advantage of an elected department head is that the voters can then vote them out. The disadvantage of an elected department head is if they screw up in the first year of being your department head, you're stuck with them for three more years. There's no other way to get rid of them," he said.

Flannigan has proposed his own ideas, which the council has agreed to explore, about how to better leadership at APD. He's in favor of having a council of commanders who represent the geographic and demographic diversity of the community. 

"That type of idea wouldn't necessarily require any kind of charter election or any other type of major reformation," Flannigan said.

City Manager Spencer Cronk is tasked with exploring this idea – and others approved by the city council – and returning to council members with a plan to move forward in about six months.

There's no guarantee the recommendation approved by the Human Rights Commission will ever land on council members' desks – not all recommendations do – but Flannigan is open to the idea.

"The idea might work. There might be some legal traps you've got to run. But nonetheless, I think it's great to see this continued brainstorming from commissions," he said.

If approved, White said while the process would be complicated, it won't be impossible.

"I definitely think that it is very much within the realm of possibility. It is within our right to have special-called elections. It's within our right to spend the money that we have how we see fit," White said.

WATCH: Austin mayor talks COVID-19, police budget cuts on KVUE

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