AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- The City of Austin's Office of Police Oversight issued its first-ever report on officer-involved shootings Wednesday.
The report, which looked at incidents taking place in 2018, examined the 12 officer-involved shootings involving Austin Police. Those 12 incidents involved a total of 33 officers and 11 individuals.
"In the most significant way, officer-involved shootings represent the power that law enforcement officers have over the lives of the civilians they serve," OPO director Farah Muscadin said in a statement. "As a result, both OPO and APD must critically analyze each officer-involved shooting incident that occurs and must also look at the aggregate data to determine what substantive policy changes can be made to address any recurring issues."
According to city officials, the study found:
- Most individuals involved in 2018 officer-involved shooting incidents were ethnic minorities, specifically Latinx males
- Most individuals involved in 2018 officer-involved shooting incidents were between 20-28 years old
- The highest concentration of officer-involved shootings occurred in City Council District 2, the borders of which closely mirror those of APD’s Frank sector. District 2 and Frank sector cover southeast Austin.
- Almost half of all involved officers had between 3-6 years of APD experience, and more than half of all involved officers were between 30-39 years old.
- Involved officers used "less-lethal" force before firearms in only one incident
The report concludes that officers failed to use de-escalation tactics in many of the incidents, and failed to use available "less-lethal" options in all but one of the incidents. 7 of the 12 incidents were fatal, with 2 of those having been ruled suicides by the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office.
Officials say half of the incidents involved a mental health component, where APD had information - either before or after an incident - related to the individual's mental health history.
The report includes the following recommendations for APD to implement:
- Increase continuing education in de-escalation, response to resistance; crisis intervention and mental health response, and community policing
- Publish annual reports related to any officer-involved shooting incidents involving the Department
- Increase the OPO’s access to officer-involved shooting incident data
- Ensure mental health response training, policies, and procedures follow best practices and address shortcomings found in the 2018 City Auditor report
