Policing in Austin: APD/DPS partnership, Chacon retirement and more

AUSTIN, Texas - In our last FOX 7 Focus, we spoke with the Austin Police Association president Thomas Villarreal to get his take on the state of policing and public safety in Austin.

Those calling for more police reform and accountability have a different perspective, especially when it comes to the DPS partnership. 

Susana Almanza, director of the east Austin based grassroots organization PODER, joined FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak to discuss.

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JOHN KRINJAK: So first, I want to ask you about the big news from this week. Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon announced he is retiring. What's your reaction to that news?

SUSANA ALMANZA: So I think that with all of these different circumstances, he decided the best thing to do was just to retire. But it kind of left us sad because we had tried to set several meetings with him, and he had actually said them and then canceled them. And so I felt like a lot of the community dialog really didn't take place.

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JOHN KRINJAK: What are your biggest concerns about public safety and policing right now, and what changes would you like to see under the next chief, whoever that may be?

SUSANA ALMANZA: Well, like I said, there's been extreme racial profiling in our community. People are pretty much living in fear, are afraid even to come and visit their family relatives in the metropolis community, because they just see the presence of so much DPS.

JOHN KRINJAK: You mentioned the DPS partnership, which you've obviously been a vocal opponent of. What do you make of this back and forth where the city called for it to end, and then Gov. Abbott directed troopers to stay here in Austin? What are your thoughts on how this is all played out?

SUSANA ALMANZA: Well, we were very pleased. We felt victorious that they decided to pull out in during the contract. And then we were very upset when the governor says, no, he's keeping the DPS, and he's adding more DPS to our communities. We feel like this is part of the whole racial profiling and also the hate bashing against the immigrant community that has been going on.

JOHN KRINJAK: Does the DPS presence look similar in east Austin now as it did a couple of months ago?

SUSANA ALMANZA: The DPS seems similar and even more heavy. You know, people have come down here in store for themselves that, you know, they are constantly seeing the DPS people pull over, do searches, you know, get people out of their cars.

JOHN KRINJAK: Last week when we spoke with the Austin Police Association president, he had this to say about the allegations of racial profiling by DPS as they patrolled neighborhoods such as East Austin.

JOHN KRINJAK: How would you respond to those words?

SUSANA ALMANZA: Well, I think that history has shown that data has not been objective. It has been weaponized. It's been used as a tool to abuse black and brown people to do further racial profiling. So we know, too, that history has proven that data has not been objective. And so for him to say that I'm his only in his stance, and it's only because they're not following crime in the other parts of town, that they're not their presence. We see just as much crime and violence in West Austin as we do in East Austin.

JOHN KRINJAK: How would you like to see Austin police address the staffing shortage? That's obviously what they point to when they say, you know, this is why we brought DPS in the first place. So what possible solutions do you see that would be better than having troopers here in Austin and maybe, you know, taking into consideration some of those concerns you mentioned?

SUSANA ALMANZA: But I think that the police need to do partnerships. They need to do partnerships with the health department, with the mental health department, with the homeless organizations, with education institutions. And that way is really a community buying into and addressing a lot of the issues that we see.

JOHN KRINJAK: All right. Susana Almanza, director of PODER. Susanna, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SUSANA ALMANZA: Thank you.