Tuesday, November 09, 2010

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.

2 comments:

  1. typo on the headline, it happens

    Ha Ha, the word verification is fixem

    ReplyDelete
  2. What do they monitor? As a crime victim, I requested from Louis G.
    to know why there is nothing done
    about my incident reports. Was there ever a report written? This
    guy needs to be replaced, he never
    made an attempt to answer my question...looks like a cover-up
    to me. Oh, the alleged episode
    occurred in 78704.

    ReplyDelete