Concerns arise over the City of Austin's partnership with Texas DPS

APD Headquarters
(Photo: CBS Austin)

CBS Austin
by Paige Hubbard
Tue, March 28, 2023, 10:03 PM CST

AUSTIN, Texas — CBS Austin is digging deeper into the City of Austin’s newly announced partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

In a joint press conference Monday, DPS and city leaders announced the agency will lend state troopers and special agents to help Austin police manage its ongoing staffing challenges and improve public safety.

Since the news broke, concerns are being brought up by Austinites and a city council member.

An Austin city activist tells CBS Austin this collaboration came as a surprise to the council. Some Austinites also worry that since DPS won’t have to follow the city’s laws, that may discredit certain policies put in place by voters.

On Monday, Austin city leaders touted the fact its new partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety has been implemented in cities like Dallas and San Antonio. At the time both areas were facing a spike in crime while their police departments were understaffed.

“In the past, DPS has also provided support to other Texas cities,” said Mayor Watson during the media briefing.

Chas Moore with the Austin Justice Coalition is pointing out that Dallas city leaders voted to withdraw DPS troopers after the community felt like they were over-policing and racially profiling.

“Seven weeks later Dallas ended that agreement with DPS,” Moore said.

This article from 2019 details the concerns. It’s part of the reason Moore doesn’t agree with troopers being deployed to the Austin area.

“I think DPS takes out the local context. I think although APD is not perfect by any means, they have taken strides, they have taken steps to understand the moment in time that around conversations we're having with policing,” said Moore.

Moore adds he doesn’t feel there will be any compassion or discernment coming from DPS troopers sent to help.

“I think DPS is going to come and just be the law. I think that’s going to be detrimental to the poor and communities of color,” he said.

District six Council Member Mackenzie Kelly supports the collaboration. While district nine Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri isn’t quite sold.

On Tuesday Qadri tweeted he still has serious concerns regarding the new plan when it comes to accountability, timeline enforcement, policies, and more.

Civil rights attorney Austin Kaplan believes what the city needs is better oversight, not more policing.

“It’s a potential civil rights disaster just waiting to happen,” said Kaplan.

Kaplan is noting that since DPS troopers won’t have to adhere to city laws, that could potentially create trouble for austinites. Especially when it comes to matters such as the decriminalization of marijuana.

“Our local police force is instructed to not make arrests for small amounts. In my understanding, DPS does not have to follow any of those guidelines and so now we’re going to have a situation with two sets of policing rules happening in one town, at one time,” he said.

We reached out to the City of Austin, The Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Austin Police Department to ask whether state troopers will make an exception to its practices while patrolling the city.

In a statement, the Austin Police Department told us:

DPS has its own policy that it will abide by that is separate from APD. The Travis County DA’s office has a policy on low-level drug arrests.

CBS Austin reached out to multiple council members to ask if they were properly notified about the announcement. Despite multiple sources telling us they were not, the council members we reached out to did not confrim that information.

“The mayor of Austin unilaterally made this kind of decision. What if city council members and a majority of city council members oppose it? You know, the majority rules this is a democracy, not a dictatorship. So, this is not the kind of action that can be taken by one person, presumably,” Kaplan said.

“I know this was not made with full council support or to their knowledge,” said Moore.

We also reached out to Mayor Kirk Watson's office about the handling of the situation. We asked if under these circumstances is it common for the mayor to take swift action without consulting the council.

In a statement he tells us:

Public safety has been a top priority for all members of this city council. That is evidenced by the council members working to show respect and support for our police with an officer pay increase and retirement enhancement. Building on existing interagency cooperation between APD and DPS while Austin has such a high number of vacancies in the department is a common sense, practical solution. The Chief was very receptive, and we acted quickly, in part, because the police contract expires at the end of the week. City government must be nimble and able to move to meet needs. Austin needs more police now and it has a partner that was ready to help. This collaboration will be supervised by the Austin Chief of Police. There will be transparency, monitoring and reporting to assure Austin values are met.