AUSTIN, Texas — Austin city leaders are calling for more transparency and new policies in how Austin police will release body camera footage.
After the Austin City Council approved an extended contact on Thursday with Axon, the company providing Tasers and cameras, councilmembers raised concerns over how long body camera footage is being kept behind closed doors.
"While we do think officers need body cameras, we think body cameras bring transparency and all the good things," said Chas Moore, the executive director of the Austin Justice Coalition. "We really think it’s very important to have a policy in place that talks about how we use the body cameras, all the protocols for the body cameras, and things of that nature to just make sure we have as much transparency as possible."
Councilmembers said it's important to release the footage in a timely manner in building trust with the public.
Moore said while the City has a body camera policy in place, he said it doesn't address "release in critical incidents."
"The fact that you have Quentin Perkins type videos shelved somewhere you can't see. That’s why we need a policy in place to talk about those types of incidents. Critical incident videos so we can have those released to the public as well," Moore said.
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This comes after a police bodycam video showed a controversial February 2018 arrest of a man who was tased while his hands were in the air. It was only released to the public last week.
Community members had advocated for the policy more than a year ago after Austin police finished issuing body cameras to the entire patrol force.
"Back at the end of 2018, the [city] manager, along with our now Police Oversight Officer [Farah] Muscadin, put out a memo to council saying that we would have a release policy that would be progressive and would make this investment worthwhile," Councilmember Greg Casar said. "It’s been quite a while since the end of 2018."
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City Manager Spencer Cronk has been working with APD, the Office of Police Oversight and community advocates to draft the policy and hopes to have an update in the near future.
They said they'd like to have a plan in place by March.
Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday sent KVUE the following statement:
"The State Law on the release of body camera footage is clear. It provides when you can and when you can't release videos. If the city wants more footage released, they need to approach the Texas Legislature in 2021."
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