Email exchange between councilmember, police chief goes public
AUSTIN, Texas - An email exchange between Austin City Council member Alison Alter of District 10 and Austin Police Chief Brian Manley was made public.
The emails showcase a disagreement between the two when it came to a request Alter made to investigate if any APD employees were involved in the US Capitol attack last week.
"For her to single out the police department was, in my opinion, disgraceful," said Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday.
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Council Member Alter says she was trying to get clarity from Chief Manley through these emails.
"My goal was to understand whether we had any official officers or staff from APD, who participated in the DC violence, and subsequently to ask the chief to speak out forcefully against the violence to reaffirm our democratic values and to clarify expectations of his officers," said Alter.
Alter says the public deserves to know if any APD officers were involved in the capitol riots and that the chief should investigate. Casaday says that's not necessary.
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"If policy violations occurred or an officer has broken the law then yes, you need to do that, but we just don't go willy nilly investigating people. We weren't investigating her office or anybody else's office over in the council chambers when we had riots going on here or in Portland, Seattle," he said.
In a statement from APA, a direct quote from Alter’s email can be found. It says Alter wrote: "As an educator and as a parent, it has been my experience that you look for teachable moments to encourage desired behavior and that repetition helps lessons sink in."
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"I thought it was very disrespectful and very condescending. We're constantly reminded about following policy procedure, the Constitution, state law, federal law, on a daily basis, and that's what she doesn't see," said Casaday.
Alter says she had no intention to insult the Chief but to make sure officers are informed.
"We are at a critical point in our history and people who want to lead in our community, We need to speak out and we need to be very clear to affirm our democratic values and to be clear about our expectations, and sometimes that means holding people to high standards, and we need to have clarity so that the community can be confident in our law enforcement," said Alter.