Austin Police Oversight 'Know Your Rights' campaign emphasized after deadly shooting of teen

AUSTIN, Texas - The death of 17-year-old Anthoneil Williams II continues to shape conversations across Austin. 

On Friday, Austin Police Oversight (APO) emphasized the importance of knowing your rights to help people navigate encounters with police, through an updated initiative.

"Know Your Rights" campaign

What they're saying:

The police shooting of 17-year-old Anthoneil Williams hung over Friday’s announcement before it began. Austin Police Oversight Director Gail McCant opened with a message to the teenager’s family.

"I would be remiss if I did not share my deepest condolences to the family of Anthonell Williams II. As a mother, watching the body-worn footage of this incident was deeply painful. I cannot begin to imagine the grief the Williams family is experiencing or the impact this incident has had across the city of Austin. My thoughts and my prayers remain with the family and all those who are grieving," Austin Police Oversight Director Gail McCant said.

She then introduced APO’s updated "Know your Rights" campaign.

"This initiative is more important today than ever. This tool is designed to help residents understand their rights when interacting with police," McCant said. "Every day, people in our community find themselves in situations where they are unsure of what to do, what to say, and what their rights actually are. Whether doing a traffic stop or an encounter on the street or something more serious, that uncertainty creates fear."

To better understand those fears, Austin Police Oversight held community focus groups while redesigning the campaign.

"One of the biggest things that we found was that people, and most interesting honestly, that people, it's not a lack of knowledge about their rights. People know what their rights are, but fear is the biggest thing. That makes their decisions, right, that leads to their decision-making," said Katrina Dorsey, of Austin Police Oversight.

The updated website offers step-by-step guidance for traffic stops, searches, public encounters, and what to do after interaction with police, all in six different languages.

"We've been offering this programming since 2019, but it needs to be revised and updated so that, in this very noisy environment where you have social media videos and all sorts of information from, you know, social media, lawyers, who give all sorts of advice, we wanted to give information that was dynamic and relevant to community members," said Sara Peralta, of Austin Police Oversight.

Austin Police Oversight reports between 50 and 90 complaints about law enforcement from community members each month so far this year.

"The biggest complaint category we get is related to rudeness in professional conduct," Peralta said.

City leaders said they hope better-informed interactions can help change that.

"Interactions with law enforcement can be confusing, stressful, and intimidating. My hope is that this campaign helps create a more informed community, one where every Austinite has the resources they need to confidently navigate those encounters," Austin City Council Member José Velásquez said.

Austin Police Oversight said their next step is developing a community education curriculum to go with this "Know Your Rights" campaign.

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