"Austin American Statesman" Articles

01-14-10: Council poised to create new police commander position

01-01-10: Austin police sergeant takes helm of state police union
12-31-09: APD: Officers obeyed protocol in fatal shooting
12-23-09: Austin police officers report more use of force in 2008
12-21-09: APD says it has complied with federal recommendations|
12-20-09: Operation Blue Santa brings Christmas to needy familes
12-19-09: Vincent: Austin police chief does not wield absolute power
12-19-09: Position sought for bypassed officer


2009 AAS ARCHIVES

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AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN

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01-14-10:
Council poised to create new police commander position
Decision is best option, council members say.

By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 11:51 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

Published: 9:29 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

Austin City Council members will likely create a new high-ranking police position today for an officer who had been denied a promotion but received the job on appeal.

Several council members said Wednesday that although they will support the measure, they remain less than enthusiastic about adding a new slot to the commander rank, the department's highest nonappointed position.

"At this point, I don't see any fair and equitable way out of the situation," Mayor Lee Leffingwell said. "I would have rather this not happened in the first place, but now that it has, I'm going to go ahead and support this."

The position will be filled by Lt. Wayne Demoss, who last month was awarded the job by an independent arbitrator.

Police Chief Art Acevedo had denied a promotion to Demoss last year, citing prostitution allegations during a trip abroad two years ago. Demoss was not disciplined, and an investigation found that the allegations were unfounded.

Acevedo filled the most recently vacated position with Cmdr. Patrick Ockletree, who was next in line on a promotional list and now supervises officers in Central Austin.

That decision left no slot for Demoss, who won his appeal a couple of weeks later.

Acevedo has said that he did not want to indefinitely leave vacant a commander position to await a decision in Demoss' case and that he doesn't think demoting Ockletree would be fair. Austin police commanders typically make $113,000 a year.

On Wednesday, Council Members Sheryl Cole, Laura Morrison, Mike Martinez and Randi Shade each said they also will support the creation of a new commander position.

Council Members Chris Riley and Bill Spelman could not be reached.

Leffingwell said that he wishes the city were not in the position of already having an officer promoted before an arbitrator ruled on Demoss' appeal.

Morrison said, "It is by no means a perfect solution, but I feel it would be unfortunate to demote someone else through no fault of his own. It is what I think is a reasonable solution in a difficult situation."

Shade said that she supports Acevedo's right to deny promotions in cases in which he thinks it is necessary but that she also supports the rights of officers to appeal those decisions.

"We are where we are," Shade said of today's vote.

Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, said he thinks creating the position is the right decision.

Had council members not done so, he said, "You'd have Ockletree being demoted, and he was put in the commander's position. He's already in place, and to demote him through no fault of his own would be wrong."

It was unclear Wednesday where Demoss will be assigned.

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605

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01-01-10:
Austin police sergeant takes helm of state police union
Todd Harrison says he wants to increase wages of low-paid officers along border.

By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Now that he heads the state's largest law enforcement union, Austin police Sgt. Todd Harrison says he will begin lobbying for the right for all Texas officers to negotiate their salaries and benefits.

He said he'll also work to raise salaries of officers in particular agencies along the border, where he said hourly wages can be as low as $8.50 an hour.

And Harrison said he will monitor for any rumblings of proposed state laws that would decrease officer benefits.

"It's going to be a very big responsibility, and I think it is going to be a big challenge," he said.

Harrison took over Friday as president of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas , the first Austin police officer to serve in the position since the union was created in 1976.

He oversees the organization — CLEAT has more than 17,000 members — at a time when the already powerful group is seeking to boost its clout at the state Capitol.

The organization is continuing discussions about possibly merging with the Texas Municipal Police Association, which would give CLEAT more than 30,000 members and make it one of the largest police unions in the nation.

Harrison also now oversees the primary mission of CLEAT: providing legal representation to officers and serving as a resource for local unions who seek to negotiate employment contracts. Winning such rights generally requires local voter approval and can be contentious in some communities.

Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, said his group also plans to work with Harrison to get better treatment for injured officers.

State workers compensation programs are increasingly denying certain care to wounded officers, Vincent said.

"With him here and familiar with our stories, that is going to help," he said.

Harrison said he decided to seek the three-year presidential term in October after two decades of CLEAT involvement. He ran unopposed.

Over the years, he said he has remained concerned — and motivated — by what he said were poor wages among officers in some parts of the state, including the border and isolated, rural areas.

"The only way to get more professional police officers across the board is that you pay them like professionals and treat them like professionals," he said. "If a man is worried about feeding his family, that puts extra stress on him that I don't think anybody wants a police officer to have."

Harrison first got involved in the group in the late 1980s, when he and fellow deputies at the Travis County sheriff's office decided to form an association for employees. Harrison said he sought guidance from CLEAT staff.

After joining the Austin Police Department in 1993, Harrison said he remained involved in CLEAT and the Austin police union.

"I had a vision of what I thought I would like my association and union to do, and really, the only way you can get your voice heard is to get active and run for positions where you can be heard," he said.

In his 16 years as an Austin officer, Harrison has served as a CLEAT regional director and most recently as vice president.

"I'm really excited about him taking over," said El Paso police officer Chris McGill, who has been president the past three years. "I think he is exactly what the organization needs. He's young, experienced and motivated, and he cares a lot about the members."

During the next three years, Harrison will be on leave from the Police Department. His salary will be paid by CLEAT and with leave time officers donate to him.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said he supports Harrison.

Acevedo said Harrison will be an "outstanding advocate" for officers across the state to raise the quality of their work environments.

"Todd really cares about officers who are less fortunate than the men and women of the Austin Police Department," he said.

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605

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12-31-09:
APD: Officers obeyed protocol in fatal shooting
But DA's office says 911 tapes will not be released for a while.

By Marty Toohey
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 8:57 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009

When an Austin police officer and Travis County sheriff's deputy fatally shot a man who was threatening them with a gun early Monday, they were following department protocols precisely, police said Wednesday.

But tapes that police said will bear out that analysis will not be available to the public anytime soon. The Travis County district attorney's office said the 911 domestic disturbance calls and audio picked up by an officer's dashboard camera cannot be released because they could interfere with a required investigation into whether the officers acted appropriately.

"We don't want any of that information coming out yet because it might taint the investigation," possibly by influencing the recollections of witnesses the DA's office has yet to interview, or witnesses who may be called to testify before a grand jury, Assistant District Attorney Claire Dawson-Brown said.

The DA's office released some 911 transcripts shortly after Austin police officer Leonardo Quintana fatally shot Nathaniel Sanders II in May . But Dawson-Brown said those tapes contained only ancillary information, while the tapes in the Roger Tyrone James shooting contain "information key to the case."

Although police say protocol was followed, James' family members have said they think the shooting could have been avoided with more patience on the part of police.

Police said that just before 3 a.m., Travis County sheriff's Deputy Theodore Ramsey responded to a domestic disturbance call in South Austin expecting to back up Austin police. But he arrived first and, after ensuring the woman involved was safe outside, waited for the arrival of police, which had jurisdiction in the case, Travis County sheriff's Capt. Art Cardenas said.

Officer Justin Berry arrived several minutes later and knocked on the front door, trying to coax James out, according to police. James emerged with a pistol but then quickly went back inside, police said. Berry continued trying to persuade him to come outside, officials said. Twenty-one seconds later, James came out again and Berry told him to drop the gun, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said. When James began to take aim, Berry fired with his pistol and missed, according to initial reports, while Ramsey fired a shotgun blast that struck James in the chest, a wound that killed him, police said.

After James fell to the ground, Berry crouched next to him to comfort him and began performing CPR after James stopped breathing, Acevedo said.

Assistant Police Chief Patti Robinson said Tuesday that in such cases, where a suspect is thought to be armed and refusing to come out, officers call for backup and a supervisor but are responsible for controlling a scene in the meantime. If a suspect still refuses to come out, a supervisor then determines whether to call out a professional negotiator and the SWAT team.

"They called for additional backup and for a supervisor," Robinson said. "But they have to contact a suspect and ask that person to come out."

James re-emerged and was shot before the backup and supervisor arrived, Robinson said.

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12-23-09:
Austin police officers report more use of force in 2008
Increase came after department changed rules for greater documentation.

By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 12:19 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009

Austin police filed 1,152 reports saying they had used force in 2008, nearly 400 more than in the previous year, an increase that officials attribute to a policy change that requires officers to document more encounters.

The spike was spread across racial groups, although the use of force on African American saw the highest increase at 54.2 percent from 2007 to 2008, according to a report released Tuesday.

Use of force on whites increased 43.9 percent and on Hispanics, 37.9 percent.

However, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the number of force encounters represented only a fraction of the 636,478 interactions officers had with residents last year, including traffic and pedestrian stops.

"I think that bodes well for officer safety and for the safety of suspects we come in contact with," Acevedo said. "It speaks volumes to the professionalism of our members and the quality of the city we live in."

The increases happened during a year in which officers had 52,862 more contacts with the public, the report said.

Police officials said in the report that they made several changes to their use of force policies in 2008 that probably contributed to the increase in force reports.

Previous policy required officers to document incidents when suspects reported "a consistent and repetitive complaint of pain beyond the initial arrest procedure."

However, officials revised the policy in June to require officers to document any complaint of pain or injury, except among suspects who report only minor discomfort from handcuffing.

The change was the result of a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Justice that suggested police report nearly all force incidents.

Police officials also said in the report that they made other reforms to their use of force policies in 2008, including assigning supervisors to investigate more minor force incidents and establishing a force review board to look into incidents that involve serious injury or death.

According to the report, force was used on 305 whites among 19,540 arrests, 255 blacks among 12,006 arrests and 313 Hispanics among 19,843 arrests.

The rate at which officers used force per 1,000 residents was 15.6 for whites, 21.3 for blacks and 15.8 for Hispanics, the report said.

Most of the force incidents happened when a person was being arrested, the report said.

Nearly 40 percent of the encounters occurred in the department's Central Bureau, which includes the Central-East, Northeast and downtown Austin patrol areas. Within that bureau, 16.3 percent of force incidents happened in the downtown area.

Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he has heard less in recent years about officers using force on minority suspects.

"I think with Acevedo's administration, he has a much more community-based team, and I think people respect that," Linder said. "Overall, I think there has been some improvement among his officers based on how they communicate and engage."

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12-21-09:
APD says it has complied with federal recommendations

By Tony Plohetski | Monday, December 21, 2009, 12:08 PM

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo announced Monday that the department has complied with dozens of federal recommendations to improve the agency, including how officials investigate use-of-force incidents.

Among 165 suggestions, department officials will adopt all but four and have already put most of them in place, Acevedo said. The recommendations address areas relating to officer training, internal affairs investigations and community outreach, among others.

“We, by all means, are not a perfect organization,” Acevedo said. “Human beings are imperfect. We all know that, and that is why we have to be vigilant and be accountable to make sure people are doing the right thing.”

The announcement, which followed a 50-page letter Acevedo recently sent federal officials, concludes a years-long federal review of the department. It also came nearly a year after police officials made public the list of federal recommendations.

The federal inquiry was the result of a complaint filed by the Austin NAACP chapter and the Texas Civil Rights Project, triggered, in part, by an American-Statesman series in 2004. Those articles revealed that from 1998 to 2003, police were twice as likely to use force against blacks as against whites and 25 percent more likely to use force against Hispanics than against whites.

The groups added to their complaint in February 2005 after several officers and dispatchers exchanged computer messages that included “burn baby, burn” during a fire at the Midtown Live nightclub, which catered to African-American patrons.

The Justice Department had told the city in a letter informing them of the inquiry that officials would seek “to determine whether APD is systemically violating the Constitution of the United States.”

The department could have faced more serious federal mandates, in which it would have been required to put the recommendations in place or a face a possible federal lawsuit.

Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, who attended the news conference, said he was pleased with the outcome of the inquiry. He said cities often have few opportunities when they soundly improve quality of life for residents.

“This is one of those moments,” Harrington said.

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12-21-09:
Operation Blue Santa brings Christmas to needy familes
Volunteers from the Austin Police Department, Austin Fire Department and Texas National Guard among those handing out gifts, food.

By Joshunda Sanders

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Updated: 11:37 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009

Like tall elves in royal blue jackets, dozens of men and women gathered Saturday morning in South Austin to deliver Christmas gifts with Operation Blue Santa, a nonprofit that has been handing out toys to low-income families since 1972.

After collecting toys for months, volunteers gathered at the Blue Santa headquarters on South Industrial Drive and two other locations to start the one-day delivery.

Members of the Texas National Guard, Austin Police Department and Austin Fire Department and hundreds of other volunteers loaded their cars before they fanned out across the city.

Before 8 a.m., Austin police officer Joe Maciel headed out in his patrol car, with Operation Blue Santa President Benny Aleman beside him. Their first stop was the South Point Village apartment complex, where they delivered a box of toys and a frozen turkey to two families.

Maciel knocked on a door and paused, wondering if the family inside might still be asleep. Lucia Morales came to the door, offering the police a sleepy "Buenos días," then a sweet "Gracias" as they placed a box of presents by her Christmas tree.

A few minutes later, Police Chief Art Acevedo stopped in with another box and wished her and her husband a merry Christmas.

In the same apartment complex, Acevedo walked over to another building and waited for Anjelica Reyes and her two children to come home from an early morning appointment. When Reyes and her children, Josua, 3, and Gabriela, 5, arrived, their faces lit up with appreciation.

"Wow, oh my gosh," Reyes said, "Thank you!"

Inside her apartment, where empty Christmas stockings adorned a wall across from the Christmas tree, it was her youngest son who smiled widely at the presence of the Santas who seemed to have forgotten their traditional suits.

"Did you see that little guy's face?" Acevedo said as he walked back to his car. "That's why we do this."

Aleman said the same thing when he and Maciel delivered another box of toys to a home on Johnny Morris Road. Maria Jaramillo said that if not for Operation Blue Santa, her two children, Estrella Rodriguez, 6, and Victor Manuel Rodriguez, 3, might not have had presents this year.

Joe Muñoz, who leads Operation Blue Santa, said this year volunteers would give toys to about 14,000 children, or about 3,500 families.

Toys are usually donated or purchased by volunteers. Organizers said they had to spend about $20,000 more of the Operation Blue Santa budget than in previous years, or about $34,000, to buy toys this year because of fewer overall donations in a sagging economy.

"We do this because it makes the kids happy," Aleman said.

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12-19-09:
Vincent: Austin police chief does not wield absolute power
Wayne Vincent, Local Contributor

Published: 6:02 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 2009

Recently, there has been a rather robust discussion within the community about the promotional system within our police department. On the one side are those who say the chief of police should have the absolute right to pick and choose those who deserve advancement. On the other side of the issue are those who truly understand how a civil service system is designed to prevent absolute power of police administrators from becoming a corrupting influence within the community.

Currently, Chief Art Acevedo has the ability to pick and choose his command staff made up of five assistant chiefs. They can come from any rank and be promoted to that level by the chief at his discretion. Most believe it to be reasonable that the chief have those he deems trustworthy and capable serve as his top leaders.

For the lower ranks, however, there is a highly competitive promotional process. In order to seek promotion, one has to be dedicated for months to study for the written exam and to polish interpersonal skills for the assessment centers. It is not an easy process, and to do well requires serious preparation.

Acevedo claims he wants to change the "entitlement" mentality by denying officers a promotion after they have taken all the tests and been placed on the promotional list. He is right in one aspect. The men and women of the Austin Police Department did feel entitled to a fair process free from character assassination and favoritism. With the three recent promotional bypasses, our officers no longer feel entitled to even that.

Commander Wayne Demoss was purposely humiliated publicly when the chief pulled an old, unfounded (not guilty) internal affairs investigation out of the closet and sent it to the press. A recent ruling by an independent hearing examiner confirmed that there was never any evidence to support that old case, and there was no valid reason to expel Demoss from the process in which he, in good faith, participated.

Interested community observers will soon learn that similar weak and manufactured reasons are behind the other two sergeants who were bypassed off of the lieutenant's list.

The result is that taxpayers will foot the bills for expensive court battles, which most likely will end in the promotion of all three employees Acevedo has unfairly targeted for public criticism.

Make no mistake, the Austin Police Association supports the chief's right to deny a promotion to any candidate who demonstrates an obvious deficiency. None of these cases come close to meeting that standard.

Any municipality is ill-advised to give a police chief absolute power to promote based exclusively on whom he likes, or who is the most loyal to the chief. That is why almost all large city departments have developed processes for promotion below executive positions.

These attempts to circumvent these processes are not healthy for the community or the department.

Vincent is president of the Austin Police Association.

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12-19-09:
Position sought for bypassed officer
Some on council oppose adding rank.

Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:50 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, 2009

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said Friday that he will ask City Council members to create a high-ranking position in the department for an officer he bypassed for a promotion but who was awarded the job on appeal.

That is one of the options Acevedo could pursue to comply with a ruling this week that he must promote Lt. Wayne Demoss to the rank of commander.

According to state law, Acevedo also could temporarily demote the commander he promoted instead of Demoss - a process that Acevedo said would create a "disadvantage" for that officer.

"He is already in a place where he is in an operational role," said Acevedo, who declined to promote Demoss in June amid prostitution allegations, among other concerns. "This is the only option we want to take."

Officials said the demotion also could trickle through the department, requiring several more officers to temporarily return to their former jobs until new vacancies arise.

Two council members on Friday said that they are unsure they would support the proposal to have 20 commander positions instead of 19.

"I might come to that, but I'm not ready to leap to that," Mayor Lee Leffingwell said.

Council Member Mike Martinez said he will listen to Acevedo's proposal but is likely to support a measure to temporarily demote Cmdr. Patrick Ockletree until the retirement of another commander, which officials said probably would occur in the spring.
"Just because Demoss won his appeal doesn't mean you justify creating another position because your decision was overturned by an arbitrator," Martinez said.

The discussions come the same week that arbitrator Norman Bennett ruled that Demoss is entitled to a position as a commander, the department's highest nonappointed rank.

State law allows police chiefs to bypass officers for promotions but requires them to have a valid reason.

Bennett said in a written ruling that several concerns Acevedo raised were not "adequate to serve as a basis for the bypass."
Acevedo cited prostitution allegations against Demoss during a trip Demoss took to Panama while on vacation a few years ago. In his ruling, Bennett wrote that Demoss' supervisors correctly concluded the prostitution allegations were "unfounded."Acevedo also said he was withholding Demoss' promotion because of his failure to recognize City Manager Marc Ott at an event this year. Demoss was not disciplined in either incident.

Acevedo instead promoted Ockletree, who was next on an eligibility list.

Acevedo has since bypassed two sergeants for promotions, both of whom are appealing.

Police union officials have objected to Acevedo's bypass practice - it has been rare for Austin chiefs to withhold promotions - saying that his actions weren't justified.

"This is a huge mess, and this is one of the reasons bypasses shouldn't be used on a routine basis," said attorney Tom Stribling, who represented Demoss.

According to state civil service experts, Acevedo can only legally demote Ockletree for disciplinary reasons or if he conducts a "force reduction."

For Acevedo to reduce the number of commanders, they said, City Council members must still create another position for Demoss in order to comply with state law.

If they create another position, city officials could then decrease the number of commanders through a force reduction, allowing Acevedo to legally demote Ockletree, they said.

State law would require Ockletree to be placed on a list for reinstatement. He would be eligible for promotion when another commander leaves the department.

"It is an `insufficient number of positions' demotion," said San Antonio attorney and state civil service law expert Lowell Denton, who has been hired by the city to help negotiate police contracts.

However, experts said the City Council could support Acevedo's proposal and permanently raise the number of commanders to allow Ockletree to remain in his job.

Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, said the discussions demonstrate why Acevedo should use bypasses only sparingly. "This is what you get into when it's not well thought out," he said.

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