AUSTIN, Texas — Travis County District Attorney José Garza is dropping most cases against Austin police officers from the May 2020 social justice protests, KVUE Senior Reporter Tony Plohetski has learned, and will seek a federal investigation into whether the department engages in a pattern of racial bias and unlawful force during the protests.
The move marks a major departure from Garza’s pursuit of the cases that started nearly two years ago – deeply polarizing the relationship between law enforcement and his office – and a shift in his approach.
The invitation to the U.S. Justice Department is being issued this week, and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson is joining the request. It is unclear if the federal government will accept it and launch an investigation.
In a sit-down with KVUE and the Austin American-Statesman, Garza explained his decision to resolve the cases through dismissals.
“During the two-year investigation into the Austin Police Department and the City of Austin and their conduct during the 2020 protests, it became clear systemic change is really necessary to ensure that this never happens again in our community,” he said. “The best way to achieve that outcome, to achieve systemic change, is through an investigation by the Department of Justice.”
The charges stemmed from the use of what police called “bean bag rounds” fired from “less lethal shotguns” as a means of crowd control during the May 2020 protests, which saw thousands of people pour into Austin streets and largely caught the Austin Police Department off-guard.
A grand jury initially indicted 19 officers in February 2022 on charges such as aggravated assault by a police officer. Garza's office then presented additional cases and obtained indictments against four more officers. Police reformers and social justice advocates praised the indictments, while police supporters saw them as a prosecutorial overreach.
This year, Garza has already dropped two cases – including one after prosecutors said they received additional information that would make the case difficult to prove.
The names of the officers whose cases will proceed were not immediately available. Garza said those cases had “aggravating factors” that made prosecutors believe moving forward was the best option.
The scope and number of indictments against officers immediately triggered controversy. Law enforcement supporters painted Garza as “anti-police,” while attorneys representing many of the officers said that they believed assault charges would be impossible to prove against them.
“It did not contribute to our decision,” Garza said of their beliefs. “The facts of these cases are quite clear and quite disturbing. During the protests, officers used deadly weapons against unarmed protesters, many of whom were only guilty of standing or holding signs. The law is quite clear about when law enforcement can use deadly force. And I think the facts are quite clear that the circumstances under which it was used in the protests were unlawful.”
Police have said that some protesters attacked police by throwing objects and frozen water bottles at them and that the use of the projectiles was within department policy. However, Garza and prosecutors contend some of the seriously wounded protesters were innocent bystanders engaged in no illegal activity.
The City of Austin has since settled cases against injured protesters for about $20 million since 2020.
The last time the Department of Justice investigated the Austin Police Department was in 2007 at the request of the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Austin NAACP.
That investigation ended with dozens of recommendations about how officers report uses of force – and an early warning system to identify potentially troubled officers. But federal officials closed the investigation in 2011 after finding "no reasonable cause to believe that APD has engaged in a pattern or practice that violated the Constitution or laws of the United States.”