Austin Police Department's use-of-force policy may be changing

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin police may soon change their use-of-force policy. 

This comes after a law enforcement expert highlighted issues with training and data collection.

APD's use of force data

By the numbers:

There have been seven officer-involved shootings in Austin this year. Those are considered the most severe uses of force and, on a scale used by Austin police, they are considered Level 1.

Statistics showed the number of people who had force used against them in 2024 was almost 3,000, with Level 1 at less than 1 percent. Statistics show the percentage of people who were arrested and had force used against them in 2024 was more than 10 percent.

"The interesting thing about this, however, is that many of the agencies that I work in, you see these numbers, the percent of arrestees that have force used against them that are much lower, looking at five to 6% rather than the nine, 10, 11% that we see in the Austin police department," Ohio State University Senior Research Scientist Dr. Robin Engel said.

Dig deeper:

Dr. Engel, who was hired to look at APD’s use-of-force, said there is a reason for the higher percentages though.

"Very minor, minor interactions between the officer and the subject are counted by the Austin Police Department as force, which is why you see these elevated percentages here," Dr. Engel said.

She said a use-of-force task force has been created to help address the inconsistences. They have also been working to get the department all on the same page about use-of-force.

"What we really need to be thinking about is how do we change the culture? How do we ingrain de-escalation as not just acceptable but expected within the APD," Dr. Engel said.

She said it starts at the top. The task force is recommending all sergeants go through a week-long training using what is called the ICAT model.

"We’re teaching officers, and they talk about spinning the model, meaning you collect information, you’re assessing that situation, your threats and your risk, you consider your police powers and agency policy, identify options and determine the best course of action, you act, you review, you step back and assess," Dr. Engel said.

What's next:

Dr. Engel said this is one of the ways to reduce the risk of officer and citizen injury. 

The task force is proposing a change to the current use-of-force policy to put everything into a single, straightforward policy. It is currently in draft form.