Austin Police Monitor candidates announced

Candidates for the Austin Police Monitor include some familiar names; see coverage from the Austin Chronicle. I'm ambivalent about the selection, for the same reasons that I opposed the final version of the original agreement creating the office. Negotiated terms hammered out between the City Manager and the police union in a "meet and confer" contract (which should be expiring any time now, if it hasn't already) turned the Austin Police Monitor into a toothless watchdog. I find it hard to justify its continuation in its current, neutered form. The office needs to be made truly independent and the veil of secrecy lifted that shrouds both the Monitor's work and the majority of police misconduct findings in Texas civil service cities.