Austin City Council gives its final approval to restart the Police Academy. But it was not without some last minute wrangling.
Austin City Councilmember Alison Alter pressed for flexibility with the classes. Should the city note the pilot cadet class isn’t meeting their goals, Alter wants them to be able to make changes mid stride, rather than wait until the cadets have graduated. The Council agreed.
Adding onto another amendment by Alter, Councilmember Ann Kitchen wants to see how far along the Academy gets in changing its culture and training. The Academy has been under its own reimagining process with community members and activists tweaking the training. The City even hired out a consulting services to help with that and list out some changes. All of which turned into a new blueprint for the academy, which APD Interim Chief Joe Chacon told Council in work session, they have not finished adopting.
The City Council is to be given a report before the Cadet Class’s intended start date of June 4th, of what progress has been made in adopting the reimagined changes.
Not every one on Council was on board with reactivating the police academy. Councilmember Greg Casar voted against, while Mayor Protem Natasha Harper Madison Abstained.
The Mayor Protem reminded the city this whole reimagining process started after they learned a high ranking APD officer was using racist language about about Former President Barack Obama, Former City Councilmember Ora Houston, and other members of APD.
It was also Harper Madison’s city resolution that shut the academy down. She says, this vote to restart classes is actually very specific and boils down to a test drive of one class. She still has questions and feels restarting the class this soon will only jeopardize this chance of change.
