Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis releases 100-day plan; wants community's input

AUSTIN, Texas - The new Austin Police Chief is releasing her first 100-day plan. Chief Lisa Davis said her goal is to build officer and community safety and trust.

"Crime is not just the police's problem, it's everybody's problem," Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

Chief Davis is encouraging Austin residents to express their concerns.

"And we start building plans from that. After hearing those things, we can say this is everybody's plan, you know, it's not just my plan," Chief Davis said.

Chief Davis’ first 100-day plan starts with what she calls a listening campaign and transitions into assessment and evaluation, learning the department’s strengths and weaknesses.

"I don't plan on coming in here and gutting the whole organization. It is a very good police department," Chief Davis said.

She said she wants more people to join it.

"When you get those numbers up, that does make a big difference in what you're trying to accomplish as an organization," Chief Davis said.

Currently, Austin police is down about 300 officers, but Chief Davis said a class of almost 55 just graduated, about 35 are currently going through the academy, and a class in January could possibly have 80 people.

"The numbers are coming," Chief Davis said.

She said some units that were previously dissolved may come back.

"I think the motorcycles are something that I would like to see downtown. I think that would be a good presence in the downtown area for the motorcycles to be and then to have the DUI enforcement and to have the enforcement out again that is truly something where officers can see where we save lives," Chief Davis said.

Chief Davis said too many lives have been lost because of homicides.

"Sixty homicides, that's too much, and any homicide is too much," Chief Davis said. "So, what is occurring, where are these guns coming from, who is committing these homicides, and so when you're looking at where these homicides are happening, a lot of them are drug related. We have a probably 13 to 15 percent of those homicides are family violence, so what are the interactions and what can we do as an organization to intercede in those things?"

She said developing evidence-based solutions is phase three of the plan and launching those is the last step.

"It's going to be good change, and it's going to be change that’s going to make a huge difference," Chief Davis said.

A survey is available for community members to fill out.

Chief Davis said she will be providing updates on the results of this 100-day plan when solutions are launched.