In years' past, some undercovers have angrily referred to themselves, upon activists’ questioning who they were to be hauling off friends in unmarked vans, as the “Austin Po-Po” – but even while they were barking their identifier, it seems they were quite proud of the moniker.  So with respect to their self-entitled nickname, and in wondering about this recent, mysterious revelation of missing reports, I’ve taken it upon myself to conjure up “Goof-Po”… an imaginary homework (report)-eating dog; APD-man’s best friend. 

The long-awaited release of the 2009 Use of Force Report, er, “Response to Resistance Report” as they now call it, insinuating an assumption on their part there will BE resistance in any given encounter, brings to light some hopeful signs while simultaneously opening the doggy-door to several questions. 

Meanwhile, it should be asked, why does it take a full year to release the year prior’s report, and to release it three days before Christmas? Well, if your use of force is up, that’s your best bet if you’re trying to avoid media coverage and critique.  APD used to, before Chief Acevedo, release it in August or September…and supposedly they have better data systems these days. Go figure. Incidentally, they are one of a handful of cities nationwide that no longer release the mid-year crime statistic reports to the FBI as the mid-years aren’t “mandatory.”

But stalling and releasing it on top of Christmas curbs community discussion, which seems counter-intuitive when they actually have some positive gains to highlight. The community isn't noticing outright change, as highlighted last September at a City Council meeting with this video:

You’d think APD would want to promote the gains loudly. Only the negative comes through when your major daily police beat reporter has a mere few hours to file an article before trekking off to his family for Christmas. That hopefully accounts for his not questioning APD’s insistence that there were only “slight” discrepancies in use of force on whites vs. blacks and Hispanics.  30 percent and 27 percent more blacks and Hispanics, respectively, receiving force is certainly not “slight.” But we’ll give them that it’s no different from years’ past. Which is a shame. This is not addressed in the report as something to be improved upon, unfortunately.

The gains?  It’s a mixed bag, but as APD tried to relay, use of force reporting is up – 67 percent to be precise – generally due to new policies and practices in reporting: both with increased supervisory oversight and by using newer technology – reporting immediately on their patrol car computers so papers don’t get lost in the shuffle, or not filled out at all. Of course, that increases the likelihood that they’ll be typing and driving and hitting more people in the process…but that’s hopefully a policy improvement to be addressed in the near future since they have been exempted from the texting-while-driving law they pushed on the public.

Additionally, more information now goes into that report. Funny story how that was came about so quickly after Acevedo came aboard. Shortly before being sworn in as Chief in 2007, he took one look at our use of force report form after being handed it by a TV interviewer while on camera, and scoffed at the paltry level of detail it required.

Supervisors are being held more accountable for the reporting and all officers are receiving further training in how to better report. These are remarkable gains considering our history. The 2009 report recommends further “development of training and other process improvements.”

The major increase in reporting this past year was for force on the lower end of the use of force continuum (spectrum) for soft and hard hand-holds; i.e., what was standard not to report in year’s past. If it didn’t involve a weapon, officers didn’t bother reporting. Outlining this is a courageous admittance of past wrong-doing (probably the main reason they released it days before Christmas so it flies under the radar).  We won’t know until next year’s report how much this lower-force reporting indicates an increase in lower-end-of-the-continuum force vs. otherwise. Anything above, say, a 10% shift downwards would be a remarkable change for the better.

The last recommendation in the report was for increased training in conflict resolution; something the community has, for years, been begging for. This is an incredibly hopeful sign. For that, we must thank Chief Acevedo.

But let’s get back to that admittance of past wrong-doing bit. If officers were not filing their paperwork or paperwork was getting “misplaced” as Asst. Chief Hutto explained in the Statesman, then where was the discipline for not doing so? Since Acevedo arrived in July, 2007, he immediately started to make these changes, but was anyone held accountable for lack of adherence to these new policies since that time? At $90,000+/year, some of the highest paid officers in the nation can’t fill out their forms or keep up with the ones they do?  Really?  A $10/hour file clerk would be fired for less. 

So therein lies the quandary. Where did these “misplaced” reports go and who should be in the doghouse for it? Did Goof-Po eat them? With a possible missing 600 reports or more a year, that’s one hungry imaginary best friend.