Austin City Council to vote on creating ‘police reserve’ of retired officers for events
Published: Sat, 07/15/23
Austin City Council to vote on creating ‘police reserve’ of retired officers for events
KXAN
by: Grace Reader
Posted:
Updated:
AUSTIN (KXAN) — According to last-minute Austin City Council agenda items published Friday, council members could vote to create a “police reserve” unit to help the Austin Police Department with large events as it faces a staffing crisis.
“I think that we’re at a point with our staffing at the police department where we need all the help we can get,” Council Member Mackenzie Kelly said, “and by creating a reserve police officer program, we will get additional officers who’ve previously worked for the department and are retired and able to assist with the staffing needs.”
It’s something even a co-founder of the Austin Justice Coalition, APD’s self-prescribed “harshest critic,” says he can get behind.
“A lot of these cops have been able to go the 23-year mark, whatever it is to retire, with no critical incidents, no bad records. I think that could be a benefit. But I think it also doesn’t hurt to have the retired cops come back and do some updated training,” Chas Moore, the co-founder of AJC, said.
According to documents, the unit would consist of no more than 75 members.
All temporary officers involved would have to have a “permanent peace officer license” and would go through condensed academy training to get up-to-date on things like body camera procedures and any new APD policy, according to the Austin Police Retired Officers Association.
“They have to be honorably retired. That means you can’t have somebody that was retired under investigation,” said Dennis Farris, the president of the APROA.
The police chief will ultimately be tasked with appointing members to the unit. They must also be approved by the city council, according to agenda documents.
“The police reserve force will supplement staffing primarily during special events and has been in the works for several weeks. It’s one approach the City is taking to manage the understaffing at the Austin Police Department. It is not, however, related to the suspension of the DPS partnership,” said Mayor Kirk Watson.
Farris said he was involved in the process of creating the special unit. He made clear the retired officers would only be helping with special events and would not be patrolling. Kelly said that was her understanding as well.
“Reserve police officers may act only in a supplementary capacity to the regular police force and may not assume the full-time duties of regular police officers without complying with the requirements for regular police officers,” the agenda item reads.
Farris said as a result, the retired police officers would not be factored into normal APD staffing numbers.
Austin City Council meets Thursday, July 20.
The Austin Police Department said it was still looking into this agenda item. The City of Austin referred KXAN to the police department for comment.