PSC Approved minutes for July 6, 2021 meeting — original pdf

Approved Minutes

` Michael Sierra-Arevalo Rebecca Webber Amanda Lewis Rebecca Bernhardt PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, July 6, 2021 The Public Safety Commission convened a videoconferencing meeting Tuesday July 6, 2021 at City Hall 301 W. 2nd Street in Austin, Texas. Chair Rebecca Gonzales called the Board Meeting to order at 3:01p.m. Board Members in Attendance: Rebecca Gonzales Kathleen Hausenfluck Nelly Ramirez John Kiracofe Board Members Absent: Rocky Lane and Queen Austin Staff in Attendance: Troy Gay, Chief of Staff, Austin Police Department Jasper Brown, Chief of Staff, Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Rob Vires, Chief of Staff, Austin Fire Department Commissioner Gonzales. Citizen Communications - Citizens signed up to speak: -Carlos Leon spoke on Cap Metro Driver Threat during Citizen Communication -Carlos Leon signed up to speak on item 2a - APD officer response time to his call was within 10 minutes; unable to pay in person at APD Headquarters during regular business hours on June 25th due to building still closed to the public because of COVID-19; reopen APD Headquarters full-time to the in-person public 1. Approval of Minutes – Chair Gonzales called for comments/edits to the June 7, 2021 minutes and hearing no comments, she deemed the minutes approved as presented. 1  Citywide Crimes against Persons, Property and Society Citywide Response Times and Calls for Service Calls for Service and Response Times by Council District Overtime Budget vs. Overtime Spent Staffing (the 144th Cadet Class begin on June 7, 2021) The next cadet class is scheduled for -When was the last time APD met the target response times (8:24 seconds)? (Commissioner Webber) -Does APD run concurrent classes? (Commissioner Kiracofe) -Please add clearance updates to APD quarterly reports? (Commissioner Bernhardt) -How are target times determined? (Commissioner Hausenfluck) -What is definition for Zero Calls (Commissioner Kiracofe) - Are self-initiated calls possibly a waste of time? (Commissioner Lewis) 2a. Public Safety Organizations Quarterly Update – Austin Police Department (sponsors: Commissioners Hausenfluck and Gonzales) Speaker – Troy Gay, Chief of Staff, APD Chair Gonzales invited Chief Gay to begin his quarterly presentation. Chief Gay presented stats from APD on: 2023 after the 144th Cadet Class has ended and results/feedback of the class is presented to city council for a council votes to approve another class in 2023. There were comments and questions from the Commissioners over the quarterly information presented and Chief Gay committed to following up with additional information regarding: Chief Gay ended the presentation with answering most of the questions and a commitment to follow up with a response to the questions requiring time to research the answer for the commissioners. 2b Implementation of Proposition B ordinance (sponsors: Commissioner Bernhardt and Hausenfluck) Speakers: Commissioner Bernhardt introduced this item (2b) and elaborated on the reasons behind wanting information on the status of the implementation of Proposition B as it relates/impacts the homeless? Population. What are some of the challenges with implementing Prop B? Bill Brice – Vice- President Investor Relations, Downtown Austin Alliance Lawrence Davis – Lt. Community Liaison, Austin Police Department-Headquarters Rob Vires – Chief of Staff, Austin Fire Department Jasper Brown – Interim Chief, ATCEMS (Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services) 2  Bill Brice, Downtown Austin Alliance presented first on the position and actions of the DAA to help address the homeless problem in Downtown Austin. He is a part of the Public Improvement District and they go out and actually take a count of their own of the homeless people in the downtown area. This count is not a part of any counts, efforts by ECHCO to track homeless population. Lt. Lee Davis – presented APD’s efforts with Implementing Prop B., along with an update on APD’s plan called Responsible Public Space Management (RPSM). Topics discussed were: 1. Mission and Objectives of RPSM 2. Phased Approach Phase 1 – May 11- June 12, 2021 – Community engagement, education clean up and verbal warnings Phase 2 – June 13 – July 10, 2021 - Written Warnings and Citations Phase 3 – July 11- August 7, 2021 – 72hr Notice before clean up and during clean-up citation may be issued for violation of Camping Ordinance (3223) Phase 4 – August 8 – September 4, 2021- Arrests and Diversions – 72hr notice of clean up, arrest and diversion, APD Police 308 Misdemeanor citations Phase 5 – Assessment of previous actions 2. Summary of APD’s current response Lt. Davis provided stats/data to the commissioners on the number of homeless people APD has served/interacted with in their efforts to prepare for the implementation of Prop B, whether is was educating or cleaning up APD is on the scene to assist. Per Lt. Davis, “the elephant in the room is where do we tell the people to go” Homeless people want safe places and help. Chief of Staff, Vires briefed the board on Austin Fire Departments efforts to work with the homeless population since Chief Wade was not able to attend the meeting. Per Chief Vires Interim Chief Jasper Brown commented EMS contribution to working on the homeless issues is working with the Community Health Care Team and their HOST partnership. -AFD continues to work with other City of Austin departments to keep Austin SAFE - Educate the homeless and enforce no camping in high wildfire areas - No fires of any kind under bridges (causes damage to bridge structure and sometimes could cause structures to collapse) - AFD is working with PARD (Parks and Recreation Department) to find sanctioned places for the homeless that would avoid wildfires -AFD site tracking of the homeless for educational purposes and so HOST (Homeless Outreach Street Team) can visit the sites to offer help 3  After presentations, Chair Gonzales asked Bill Brice his thoughts on how things were going in regards to the Prop B Ordinance and the homeless moving out of downtown. Mr. Brice responded that Prop B was more than just about the public camping. There are other concerns listed in the ordinance and Solicitation/Panhandling Aggressively is another piece of this ordinance and all of the City of Austin has to continue to work together to implement Prop B. Questions and comments were received from Commissioner Ramirez, Lewis, Webber, and Bernhardt at the end of the presentations. The common comment was everyone wanted to see more humanity as possible when sharing and considering the homeless. Lt. Davis agreed to be contacted by the commissioners after today’s meeting for them to share/express more of their homelessness concerns and Prop B implementation. 2c. Update on Re-imaging Public Safety Chair Gonzales invited Ms. Muscadin to begin the update on Re-imaging Public Safety. Ms. Muscadin shared an update on the work of the task force and the working groups. Below is the list of RPS Teams/Working Groups RPS Review Teams and Leads Speakers: Farah Muscadin, Director, Office of Police Oversight Anna Michelle Evans, Policy Compliance Consultant Sarah Peralta, Public Information and Marketing Program Manager • Equity Reinvestment in Community - EDD (lead), Sylnovia Holt Rabb • Services to Violence Survivors and Violence Prevention - APH (lead), Akeshia Johnson- • Public Health Reinvestment - APH (lead), Laura La Fuente • Reimagining 911 and Non-Crisis Response - Emergency Communications, Ken Smothers Murphy (lead) • Meaningful Community Engagement - CPIO (lead), Keith Reeves • Patrol & Surveillance/Patrol & Criminal Investigation - APD (lead), Troy Gay Uprooting Punitive and Harm Culture - Equity (lead), Brion Oaks Farah elaborated on the efforts from the teams and the recommendations to come as a result of all these efforts. The commissioners were reminded that the recently passed HB1900 by the legislature will have an impact on the city of Austin’s budget and the way RPS moves in the future, but the RPS work will continue. Farah encouraged the commissioners to tune in the City Manager’s budget address on Friday, July 9, 2021. Commissioner Bernhardt had brief comments/questions on the HB1900. 4 Farah invited Anna Michelle Evans and Sara Peralta to begin the 8’Can’t Wait presentation. Anna began with the agenda listed below and elaborated on topics 1 and 2: 1. Background 2. Phase I: Policy Review & Recommendations 3. Phase II: Community Feedback 4. Phase III: Final Analysis and Report Anna Evans briefed the board on the Background and Phase I of the taskforce work. Sarah Peralta give a high level overview of the Phase II and III from 8 Can’t Wait taskforce. Two components in the Phase II were: Currently they are in Phase III and are now processing the data and do not have initial findings yet, but hopeful to get the findings and final recommendations in a report in the Fall of this year (2021). Below are key findings at this stage of their work. Key Findings: -Series of community event -Taskforce reached out to 60 individuals for feedback -They provided information in English and Spanish • Terms undefined • Unclear policy language • Unaligned with best practices & City of Austin’s stated position • Focus solely on deliberate non-compliance • Lack of guidance for officers and decision-makers Commissioner Gonzales thanked Sarah for the high level overview and commented they would be invited back to share their final report/recommendations in the Fall 2021. 3. Future Agenda Items: -Update on initial finding/recommendation from Sexual Assault Consultant PERF -Fall follow-ups from key taskforce groups (Hausenfluck) Motion to adjourn by Commissioner Kiracofe and seconded by Commissioner Ramirez Vote: Unanimous Yes: Commissioners Gonzales, Hausenfluck, Sierra-Arevalo, Bernhardt, Lewis, Webber, Kiracofe, and Ramirez Meeting adjourned @ 5:03pm 5  6