Item #6 Draft Recommendation - Implementation, tracking and transparency of recommendations made for Austin Police Department’s Cadet Training Academy — original pdf

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PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION Recommendation 20250804-006: Date: August 4, 2025 Subject: Motioned by: Seconded by: Implementation, tracking and transparency of recommendations made for Austin Police Department’s Cadet Training Academy D RAFT WHEREAS, The Austin Public Safety Commission is tasked with reviewing public safety agency budgets and providing policy recommendations to the Austin City Council; and WHEREAS, The City of Austin in conjunction with Austin community members developed a comprehensive plan for reimagining public safety; and WHEREAS, in 2018, multiple former cadets from the Austin Police Academy notified the Austin Police Department of academy curricula they believed was strongly focused on dominance, aggression, and violence in keeping with a “warrior” approach to policing; and WHEREAS a 2020 lawsuit against the City of Austin, the Austin Police Department, and the chief of the Austin Police detailed at least 8 cadets fell ill in APD academy training as a result of policy violations and improperly implemented “Stress Reaction Training,”; and WHEREAS, City Council Resolution 66, the work of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, and the 2020 Strategic Plan of the APD Training Academy articulate the goal of realizing an Austin Police Academy that transparently addresses issues of racial and gender equity, emphasizes de-escalation tactics that minimize the use of force, and moves away from a regimented, paramilitary culture into an academy which incorporates community partnerships and current evidence-based strategies for the learning of current and future officers; and WHEREAS, on November 12, 2020, the City of Austin’s Office of Police Oversight (OPO), in consultation with the City Manager's Office, retained Kroll Associates, Inc. to review and evaluate the Austin Police Department on the extent to which forms of racism, bigotry, and discrimination are present in the protocols, practices, and behaviors of the APD, beginning with an assessment of the APD training academy; and WHEREAS, Kroll’s assessment of the APD Training Academy recommended: 1. The APD academy shift away from stress-oriented military-style curricula toward a resiliency- based approach supported by adult learning and student-centered instructions 2. That adoption of a “guardian” approach that emphasizes service to the community 3. That APD become an evidence-based learning organization that rigorously tests changes to its training and shares research findings with Academy staff to continually improve Academy curricula; and WHEREAS, Kroll’s assessment recommended several measures for immediate implementation, including (but not limited to): 1. Hiring and onboarding a Training Supervisor to work with the Division Manager in updating and standardizing curriculum and support materials to better reflect adult and active learning strategies. 2. Expediting the procurement process to begin implementation of an automated Learning Management System to facilitate better organization of course materials, allow for more efficient curriculum planning for current and future cadet classes, ensure accurate eTCOLE and BPOC planning, and make it easier to transition to new instructor when staff leave the Academy. 3. Formalizing an internal review committee responsible for reviewing each instructor’s syllabi and curriculum and suggesting ways to improve each class in the academy. 4. Creation of a formal process to continue a community review of police training videos that were not reviewed previously by the recently concluded Community Video Review Panel, and then ensuring ongoing consultation between APD and the community panel concerning any new training videos proposed for use in future training courses; and D RAFT WHEREAS, on February 16, 2022, Kroll released its “Final Report of Independent Evaluator: APD Training Academy,” which provided updates to an Interim Report from October 2021 regarding findings and observations from the first four months of the APD Academy’s 144th cadet class. The report found: 1. A continuing lack of “buy in” among Academy staff regarding mandated reform efforts. 2. Lack of connection between academy modules related to de-escalation and use for force, with little or no attempt by Academy staff to make connections between community engagement programming and broader learning objectives in Academy training. 3. Continued prevalence of a “military-style culture” at the Academy. 4. Widespread ridicule by Academy staff of the concept of a “reimagined police academy”; and WHEREAS, on December 1, 2022, the City of Austin, through the City Manager’s Office, retained Kroll Associates to evaluate the Austin Police Department Training Academy review process, including the progress and effectiveness of the Academy Curriculum Review Committee (ACRC) during the 145th Cadet Class; and Kroll’s 2022 evaluation found: 1. No defined process for Committee recommendation and actionable items.. 2. ACRC meetings did not produce a concise set of specific recommendations, and the Academy staff rarely reported back to the Committee concerning prior comments and suggestions. 3. The process failed to establish true police-community collaboration. 4. There remain institutional barriers within APD and a resistance to re-thinking training approaches and curriculum content among sworn instructors, in part because of a lack of executive leadership oversight of and involvement in Academy affairs. 5. There remains a general feeling among sworn staff that the Division Manager, as a civilian employee, has no authority to impose directives on sworn members, and that sworn members are only required to respond to directives from sworn chain of command. This tension was noted in Kroll’s prior assessment of the APD Academy; and D RAFT WHEREAS, the Public Safety Commission approved a working group to review the Kroll recommendations and assess progress on the recommendations on June 3, 2024; and WHEREAS, the Training Academy Working Group first requested a status on the aforementioned recommendations in July 2024; and WHEREAS, as of July 28, 2025, Training Academy staff has failed to produce adequate documentation of progress and/or a plan for completion for all recommendations; and WHEREAS, Austin Police Department training academy staff undergoes significant turnover without a continuity plan and or documented procedures in place; and WHEREAS, as part of its staffing changes in support of the FY26-27 budget and to stabilize patrol, APD is removing 14 instructors from the academy and replacing them with different ranks (corporals and sergeants); and WHEREAS, the 154th Austin Police Cadet Academy is currently underway and scheduled for completion on August 29, 2025 with an already 50% attrition rate. 1 WHEREAS, the 155th Austin Police Cadet Academy began April 21, 2025 with a scheduled completion date of December 12, 2025 with no posted data on attrition rate as of July 28, 2025. 2 1 https://app.powerbigov.us/view? r=eyJrIjoiYTlmYjhjNmEtZTJiMy00ODJiLWI4YTMtYzY2MjI0NDhjMzUxIiwidCI6IjVjNWUxOWY2LWE2YWIt NGI0NS1iMWQwLWJlNDYwOGE5YTY3ZiJ9 2 https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=454223 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Public Safety Commission recommends no changes to staffing of officers at Cadet Academy until implementation of a Learning Management System, instructor training program, and/or continuity plan to accommodate for turnover is put in place; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Public Safety Commission recommends: • A full audit of the progress made on Training Academy reforms to be completed under the supervision of the City Auditor’s office; and • An expansion of the Open Policing Data Release Portal to include additional transparency on progress and completion of all Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, Kroll, Office of Police Oversight, and City Council recommendations; and • Public application process for participating in the Community Advisory and Professional Advisory Committees. Vote: For: Absent: Attest: D RAFT