APD announces partial release of mandated data dashboard

The Austin Police Department will transition the chief’s monthly report from a PDF format to an online dashboard complete with explanations and definitions available through the city’s open data portal. The planned dashboard release date is Jan. 18, according to a recent memo from interim Chief Robin Henderson to City Council. 

The dashboard is part of a broader initiative – the Open Policing Data Release – mandated by Council last September. The resolution, spearheaded by District 4 Council Member Chito Vela, directed city staff to regularly release APD data across several categories, including attrition, arrests, response times, use of force, inquiries into immigration status and use of discretionary arrest in lieu of citation for certain eligible misdemeanor offenses. 

“With a commitment to openness, accountability, and continuous improvement, the department is allocating all necessary resources to support the successful integration and ongoing maintenance of the Open Policing Data Release,” Henderson wrote in the Dec. 22 memo. 

The resolution stemmed, at least in part, from a lack of openness. 

An internal audit, published in August, found that the city responds to about three in four public information requests within a month. But the remainder take, on average, much longer: 88 days for city requests not related to the police department, and 460 days – or more than 15 months – for those that are. Auditors also recommended the city resolve the backlog of requests to the police department. 

“Many of (these backlogged requests) are for exactly this type of data,” Vela said at the Sept. 14 Council meeting ahead of the resolution’s passage. “The public wants this information so they can evaluate public safety trends and patterns, and policymakers need this information if we are going to make data-driven public safety decisions.” 

Local police reform advocates welcomed the specificity of the resolution, citing delays and gaps in the police department’s provision of data. 

Kathy Mitchell, policy coordinator for Just Liberty and senior adviser to Equity Action, pointed to the department’s existing annual datasets for racial profiling, last updated in 2020, and for use of force, last updated in 2021, according to the city’s open data portal. 

“You may be hearing that the Council is getting too granular in its direction and that that oversteps into the city manager’s role,” she said during the same meeting. “So, speaking to that, this item has a long and unfortunate history of inaction or, frankly, backward action, making granular direction mandatory.” 

Chris Harris, policy director for the Austin Justice Coalition and president of Equity Action, provided a more recent example: APD’s now defunct partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety, which prompted concern from Council members about transparency, as the Austin Monitor has previously reported.

“During the disastrous DPS partnership, we repeatedly saw APD put out extremely dubious information: charts without dates, charts without data definitions … information that wouldn’t pass muster in an undergrad stats class,” he said. “And so having this information be produced in a format that anyone can access and utilize will greatly enhance trust and the information that we receive from the city about policing.” 

In addition to the chief’s monthly report, APD plans to release additional datasets on March 1. But at least three datasets required by the resolution will take more time, “as they are dependent on cross-department technology projects,” according to the memo. These include workforce assignments, citations and discretionary arrests. 

APD also requested that Council continue to fund the staff necessary – four full-time employees – to maintain the Open Policing Data Release in future years.