Police oversight, officer protections key arguments in hearing about lawsuit against City
The Austin Police Association (APA) wants a seat at the table at a hearing for a lawsuit related to the Austin Police Oversight Act, which voters passed in May 2023.
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Police Association (APA) wants a seat at the table at a hearing for a lawsuit related to the Austin Police Oversight Act, which voters passed in May 2023.
In court Tuesday, attorneys representing the APA aimed to make the case of why the union should be involved in the hearing.
Advocacy Group Equity Action filed the lawsuit against the City of Austin. The APA is not listed on the lawsuit. Equity Action wants the City to enforce all provisions of the Austin Police Oversight Act.
The APA and other law enforcement groups have said from the start that certain provisions of the Austin Police Oversight Act violate state law. Once concerns first rose, city leaders addressed the need for further clarification - which the result of Equity Action's lawsuit could provide.
That's one of the reasons the APA wants to be involved in the hearing, according to Tuesday's court proceedings.
Attorneys for the APA and the City of Austin sat on the same side of the courtroom, but the two entities, per their negotiating teams, currently don't see eye-to-eye on the oversight matters at hand.
During the first two meetings of the police contract negotiations, the city's team has maintained that its position on the contract is that all of the Austin Police Oversight Act needs to enforced and written into the contract.
The item of highest contention is the "g-file," an internal personnel file containing unsubstantiated complaints against police officers that did not involve any discipline from the Internal Affairs division. This is one of the items the APA said violates state law. The Austin Police Oversight Act calls for that to be public.
The judge took the situation "into advisement" after Tuesday's hearing. The next hearing related to this is set for April 9.