- Coming up on "Austin InSight," a special in-depth interview with Austin's new police chief, Lisa Davis.

- And we'll show a side of the Rundberg community that you might find surprising as our Decibel team launches a new, year-long reporting project.

"Austin InSight" starts right now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - Hi there, and thank you so much for joining us here on "Austin InSight."

I'm Danielle Banda.

- And I'm Laura Laughead.

It's been just over four months since Lisa Davis took on the role of leading Austin's police department following a long career with the Cincinnati Police Department.

Chief Davis joins us for an "Austin InSight" big interview, but first, some background.

Chief Davis joined Austin PD in September.

Before that, she was the assistant police chief in Cincinnati.

She spent more than 30 years on that force, rising through the ranks to investigations bureau commander and then to assistant chief.

She's also a Navy veteran.

- [Danielle] She's married, with four children, and many of her family members were present for her swearing-in last October.

- And will, to the best of my ability, - And will, to the best of my ability, - preserve, protect, and defend, - preserve, protect, and defend - the Constitution and laws of the United States, - the Constitution and laws of the United States, - and of this state, - and of this state, - so help me God.

- so help me God.

Congratulations (audience applauding) - Thank you.

(audience applauding) - [Danielle] It's a big job.

The department has a budget of more than $530 million, by far the largest share of the city's $5.9 billion budget.

There are about 1,500 sworn officers currently.

And breaking that down further, 88% of the officers are men and 12% are women, 64% of the officers are white, 24% are Hispanic, and 8% are Black.

- It's a headline-making role.

Already, the chief has weighed in on the conviction, in the fall, of police officer Christopher Taylor, who shot and killed a man having a mental health episode back in 2019.

In December, she disciplined three officers for various forms of misconduct, and she came into office with a 100-day plan aimed at improving officers recruitment and morale while rebuilding community trust.

It's certainly a lot in just four months.

We spoke with Chief Davis at APD headquarters.

(upbeat music) Well, Chief Davis, thank you so much for joining us today.

- Absolutely.

Thank you.

- And Chief, you certainly had a lot to tackle when you assumed the role.

You came into a department struggling with morale and recruitment, and with no permanent police chief for over a year, but you hit the ground running with a 100-day plan, - Right, - and now, practically, the 100 days are up, so what have you accomplished so far with your plan?

- Well, the 100-day plan is, yes, I believe it's over in February, so looking at the surveys that we did, that was very important, the community surveys, what did the community say was important to them, the officers, an internal survey, what was important to the officers, but also families of the law enforcement, and I don't think that's been done before, where you're actually looking for feedback from the families of these officers.

Being a police officer is an extremely stressful and anxiety-inducing job, so to have those family members be able to talk about what their concerns are and what they would like to see from the organization, I think it's very important.

So now that we have that information, we have it in some raw data form, so we're gonna take a look at it, and again, start making changes and recommendations based off that data.

- What's next for you, as you crunch this data, on your list of priorities?

What would you say the biggest challenges is the department facing right now?

- I think there are multiple fronts.

This is something that it's not...

Unfortunately, this is not a job that one thing comes at you at a time, right?

It is multiple things at a time.

Currently it's the immigration and what's happening across the country, that's a big deal, morale and recruitment is still on the top of my list of things to do, crime strategies, looking at that, the data, how we use data within the organization.

So there are multiple fronts of things that I'm looking at and that I'm prioritizing.

- And I wanna get on some of those topics you brought up, namely, immigration, in a minute, but first, I wanna understand your philosophy and what you're approaching this department with.

So here's a quote from you last fall: Quote, "We're going to put Austin on the map for policing done right."

You've mentioned community policing before, but what does policing done right look like to you, and how is that different than what we've previously had?

- I think it's using evidence-based practices.

Policing is a science, there is a science to policing, and when you combine the sciences of policing, meaning using the data to tell us where we need to go, there are locations throughout Austin that have been historically and for decades, chronically where drugs are being sold chronically nuisance properties, all of those things, and so when you can start using evidence to address disorder and crime, that's where we're going as an organization.

But also beyond that, it's problem solving, looking at how the people that live in these areas, the people who have businesses in these areas, how we all work together to solve those problems That's the direction we're going, is using that evidence-based practices.

- Speaking of working together, the last few years, you probably well know, the community has lost a lot of faith in police officers and trust in police officers, and you sit as kind of a bridge between the police and the community.

How do you balance rebuilding trust between your officers and the community?

- Yeah, it's, it's...

Listen, I don't think those things are mutually exclusive, right?

You can have police accountability and you can talk about the way we need to go as an organization and what accountability means and still support the police, and still support the efforts that officers are doing, and so I think that's important.

It's always about safety about what's safe for Austin, how do we get there, how are officers interacting with the community.

Again, I talk about how rare it is for the average citizen to ever call the police.

It is very rare, and so every interaction that we have with a community member is an opportunity, and so we need to look at that as an organization, that every interaction, whether it's going into the gas station, getting a drink, or taking that service call, every interaction is an opportunity for us to bridge a gap between the community, and a lot of that is just understanding where we are as a city.

And so officers, again, going to community meetings, us being out there, being part of the community, that's where we start.

- And on a personal note, I've read that you've had, in your own life, growing up with your family, maybe some positive and negative interactions with police.

How has that impacted you and your approach to policing?

- Yeah, I mean, growing up in the inner city of Cincinnati, again, a violent area, seeing my uncle, you know, he was thrown down a flight of steps by police coming in to talk with him.

And then, I talk about that, but then also the relationship I had at my elementary school with the school resource officer, and how he cared for all of us.

And so when you see that, you know, even at a young age that that's the right way to do things, and so policing, I was always drawn to it just from that, is knowing that that was wrong, and the feeling it left me, you know, seeing that, and then the feeling, this other officer, of just someone that you know that you could, you know, that you knew you could trust and how important that was.

- And I'm sorry that happened to your uncle - Thank you.

- and I can't even imagine.

Well, and recruitment and retention for police departments, it's a challenge nationwide, Per the last Public Safety Commission meeting this month, you're down, still, about 320 or so officers.

What's the biggest challenge y'all are experiencing right now, when it comes to recruitment?

- Yeah, it's interesting I think we're down probably more than that.

I think it's gonna be an interesting conversation when we have the data to support that, but to be down 300 officers, we had to look at where our officers are.

You know, best practices across the country, when you wanna do problem solving and you want to do the whole community policing, you need 70% of your personnel in patrol, and 30% of your personnel are in those other areas of preferred assignments, meaning your homicide, your other investigative work.

Here, we're kind of upside down, kinda turned around, so we need to do a better job in looking at where we may be having some work done in redundancy and how we can get people back on patrol.

- And this kind of goes hand in hand with that issue.

Now let's talk about response times.

Several of our viewers have expressed concern to us about slow police response times when they've called the police for stuff like burglaries and break-ins, namely on the East Side.

I know this has been brought up to you many a time.

So how do you plan to improve response times?

- Yeah, I'm concerned about that as well.

I think when someone calls the police, we have a duty to respond.

That's our core function is responding to those calls for service, so one, it's looking at, again, getting more officers there, looking at the way we do off days on patrol, the way we do patrol in general.

I think that's one way to look at the personnel, but getting people back into patrol, working with the communications section.

The way the current system is set up, officers self-assign for certain priority calls, the lower-level calls.

We are changing that to make it where the dispatchers are dispatching those, and that gives some accountability to the officers.

They know that these runs are holding and they're theirs, and they're their responsibility - And in your short time here, other than the recruitment and the response times, you've inherited challenges, like, for one, the changes on 6th Street.

So the weekend before last, the city tested out reopening up 6th Street to cars Fridays and Saturday nights.

Previously, since December, it was just Thursday and Sunday nights, the goal being to prevent late-night crowds that can become unruly, even violent, and I saw that you were out there yourself, - Yes, yep.

- So how did that go?

- Well, I've been there every weekend so far, so I think it's important to kinda see, one, the officers to see me there and how important this change is, but listen, there is not, when you look across the country, and we can certainly talk about New Orleans and what happened there, the terrorist attack, it is hard to stop a terrorist attack when someone's, the ill intents of that, but to me, the safety for pedestrians to be on the sidewalk, for us to have guardrails in place, that is safer for them, it's safer for the officers, so let's move toward that.

But it's also something that's important to the city.

This is not just a police-led initiative, it's a city-led initiative, and so when we're there and we're looking at the resources we need, every weekend, we're finding new things and new resources that we need, to, again, make pedestrians safe, make the businesses thrive, and we've gotten those resources, so I feel really good about that.

And we're gonna keep trying and pushing, but at the end of the day, we always have to be flexible with that plan, and that means to close if we need to close, if the crowds get to a point where it's too much.

Again, safety is the paramount concern, and so we need to have that flexibility right now until that infrastructure is permanently in place.

- [Laura] And it's about being preventative rather than reactionary - That's right.

- And I, to note, this was in the works before - It was.

- New Orleans, but unfortunately, New Orleans, it tragically made it very top of mind.

- Yes.

- And then I wanna talk to you about this past weekend.

Local news outlets reported that ICE began targeted operations here in Austin, and you released a statement on social media, with some city counselors saying in part, quote, "The Austin Police Department does not, and has not in the past, had a role in enforcing federal civil immigration laws."

Can you elaborate on that?

If ICE asked you for assistance in an operation, where would you stand?

- No, that is not our role The priority of the Austin Police Department, and I've said this, and I took this job, was to make Austin safe, and it was to create an environment where communities can thrive together, where we can look at problem solving.

The role of the federal government, that's their role, it is not our role here.

It will never be a priority for me.

It is just something, again, as a police chief of this organization, my priority is and will always be about keeping Austin safe.

- That being said, a big theme of your plan has been rebuilding trust, but how do you plan to build trust with the immigrant community here, which is substantial, given these new and expected deportations policies?

- Yeah, I think it's important to be in the neighborhoods, right, and we are there, and so we have projects throughout, I think off Burnet, there's a large Hispanic community there, we're working closely with that community to address some concerns of crime that they're having there, working with the Archdiocese of Austin and some other partners to kind of build that bridge on building trust, because we know that crime is so under-reported in that area.

But I get it, there's a lot of fear right now, and the fear of coming forward, I understand that, but again, we're gonna be in those neighborhoods, working in those neighborhoods hand in hand.

- And to think all of this is happening in just your first four months - Right.

- on the job.

- Yes.

- Let's talk about police response to mental health calls.

What do you think is the appropriate way for police to address those type of calls, and should it be the police responding to those calls, at all?

- So this is the thing.

Police, we are not mental health professionals, and we have, you know, whether it's a two-day training or a five-day training, that does not make us mental health professionals.

We need help in this area.

The calls for service that we get here, the number of calls for service, is kinda staggering.

We get a lot of help from EMS, which I think is fantastic for the city, but those calls where there's some violence, there's someone with a weapon, we have to respond to those calls, that is our role to do, but can we do more?

I think it's absolutely possible.

We have to think outside the box, look at best practices across the country, and how do we address mental health, but also about the need for more bed space, the need for more of a regional space to put people, when we do find people that have mental health challenges.

That's the rub, is we're finding people, we're taking them to the hospital.

They may be getting charged with crimes, but then they're back out on the street, and it's just this rotation that's occurring.

- So let's now talk more about you so people can understand who you are and what you hope to accomplish.

So you come from outside of APD, you come from Cincinnati, your home for decades, so what made you want to leave there and come here?

- Yeah, you know, I came here for a conference for the first time.

It was a National Association of Women in Law Enforcement, and fell in love with the city.

It's a fantastic city.

Walking down, stayed at a hotel downtown, walked down 6th Street, loved the whole thing, came back a few times on my own, and as I was retiring from Cincinnati, you know, I felt like I'm young enough, I still have some ideas, I have something to give, and saw the opening, and I thought, "Let's go for it," and so here I am.

- So how do you go about implementing all of your new ideas, and change, as a quote, unquote, "outsider"?

- Yeah, I think, first, it's about relationships and building your team around you, and trusting that team, so I'm at this point, you know, four months in, where it's about having people around me that I trust to get things done, and when we're looking at what our priorities are, we're doing that together and we're moving.

Again, I am not...

I'm someone that likes ideas and when we're in a room and we're talking about things, we can throw things out, but we're all on the same page and we're all moving in the same direction.

So that's what's important, is looking at what the priorities are, and that, to me, is always just creating a safer Austin, one that's more community engaged with its officers, and building trust.

I think that is always where I'm coming from when I'm looking at new initiatives and I'm looking at the people and the team that I'm trying to build around me.

- And what might you say are your most innovative strategies to tackle a city like Austin?

- Well, again, I think it goes back to the evidence-based policing and looking at, where we're looking at the data on where we need to be.

We know the neighborhoods where crime is occurring, and certainly, there are more violent crimes, so we can look at where it's occurring and then we start moving from there.

Why is it occurring here?

What is it about this particular building or this particular space that makes criminals comfortable in doing business here?

And so when we can start tackling from that front and then bring on our resources there, whether it's through code enforcement, whether it's through other city agencies beyond policing, that's when we'll get those big wins.

- Can you talk about why the support of your dad, your parents, your family, over the years is so important to you?

- Yeah, I think it's, you know, my dad passed away about 10 years, it's been, well, it's been 12 years now, but it's just growing up being a dad's girl, and, you know, there were three of us.

He owned a drywall company, and he was getting us up early in the morning to help haul his 50-pound drywall muds up the steps.

But, you know, that's the thing with him.

It was just always about work; always be about the work, always be about doing the right thing and being on the right side of things, and so those type of lessons stick with you.

- And what do you think he would think of you leaving Cincinnati and now having this big job here in Austin?

- Oh, I think he'd be so proud, he'd be so proud.

- I have no doubt of that.

And finally, what do you want people to know about you outside of your uniform?

- I think just that I want, you know, I think it all kind of comes together, right?

It's hard to separate the work when the job is this big, and I don't think you take this job without it really being a part of who you are as a person, right?

I want the best for Austin, and I will work and I will strive for the best for Austin always coming from a place where safety is paramount, and then how we can do that in the least harmful way to people and get things done.

So I want the people to know that I'm here to work for them, with them, alongside them, as we develop these plans to address the problems in Austin, and the wins, we'll share the wins, and we'll share the losses, and if something doesn't work out, a program, we'll come back to the drawing board and go at it again.

So I think that's what I want them to know.

But that's all wrapped up into who I am.

It's about pushing, it's about striving to do something better.

- That is a great aspiration for all of us in our own lives.

Well, Chief Davis, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you, I appreciate you.

(lively rhythmic music) (lively rhythmic music continues) (lively rhythmic music continues) - As you just heard from Chief Davis, the Rundberg area in North Austin does have challenges.

It also happens to be the new focus of our community reporting project, Decibel.

The Decibel team, Blair Waltman-Alexin and Jackie Ibarra, kick off this year-long project by taking us on a tour with a community member who's been helping families there for more than 10 years.

- America is one big melting pot, and the biggest melting pot in Austin is Rundberg, but unfortunately, Rundberg gets a bad rap.

My name's Jose Carrasco, I work with Austin Voices, and I'm the community school coordinator here in the Rundberg area.

Our biggest job as a family resource center is to connect them to the resources that they're needing.

(car door slams) (lively music) Rundberg is northeast Austin, it's right before you leave Austin.

As soon as you start Rundberg, the first school you see is Dobie.

(children shouting) We got students from all over South America, we got Afghanistan students, students from Iraq, different parts of Africa.

(children chatting) Rundberg is that area where it's still affordable, that's why we get a lot of folks from a lot of different places.

The kids are amazing.

It is a really fun school to work at.

(car engines rumbling) The two-mile radius around the school is supposed to be the safest spot.

Rundberg should be the safest neighborhood in Austin with all the different schools we have, but stats from the city, I mean, Rundberg is a high-crime area, (car engines roaring) (brakes squealing) but one of the biggest reasons it does that is because we have 35 right here, so people come out, they do whatever, and then they get back in, so sometimes I think the people of Rundberg are the ones that people start pointing fingers.

It's like, "Oh, well, it's the people that live in Rundberg now The people who live in Rundberg are hardworking individuals that are trying to get their kids to graduate and go to college, and, you know, just like everybody else.

(lively rhythmic music) There used to be a city grant called Restore Rundberg, and it really brought to light this whole idea of community policing that was literally the police were in the community.

They were doing the walking beats, they were out there meeting neighbors.

We did see a shift when it came to crime.

But then the funding ran out.

In the last three years, those numbers have risen back.

Bringing back that community aspect of not being afraid of calling or talking to the police are important for a neighborhood like this.

There is a sense of fear always.

In the next year, that fear is gonna be hyped 110% because of all the talk about the deportations, and the...

I mean, all that stuff, instead of moving towards community policing, it's gonna move the opposite way.

We're gonna see how all that affects this neighborhood.

I'm gonna take you to some different neighborhood right now.

This is the Brownie neighborhood.

The first thought I had, it's like, "Am I still in Austin?"

These fourplexes, you know, some of them are really rundown.

There is no questions asked about you, where you come from or your background.

People will rent to you, but with the understanding that you also can't complain.

The rent maybe is not as high as other places, and Austin is just getting so expensive, you know, but this is where all the jobs are.

A lot of our families work in the Mueller, you know, work downtown.

Imagine if they go chasing affordable housing 30 minutes away from Austin.

I mean, that's a 30-minute extra drive, that's gas.

The city has, you know, rental programs, and there's other rental programs, but sometimes there's just no assistance out there, so how much can I help without hurting anybody's ability to live where they can afford, right?

(somber music) (engines roaring) There's so many people that should be welcomed.

Like, Rundberg is this place where everybody's welcome.

You can do a map of the world and probably find somebody (chuckles) here in Rundberg.

They bring their culture, they bring their food, they bring their energy, and we should embrace all that.

You know, that is the melting pot that America is.

Rundberg is America.

Rundberg is America in every sense of the way.

(lively rhythmic music) - Decibel's senior multimedia reporter, Blair Waltman-Alexin, joins us now.

So Blair, this was Decibel's first story in Rundberg.

What other stories do you expect to cover?

- Yeah, so all of our stories start and end with community input, so we're gonna be working on any and all topics that the residents tell us they want us to work on.

We've already had some residents tell us that they would like to see more stories on crime and policing, but they would also like to see stories that highlight some of the great programs that are happening in the area.

- Well, I love that so much.

Do you think you can share an example of some of those good things?

- Yeah, absolutely.

We've already been able to go out and start working on a story about a program that the library is doing, teaming up with the community garden in the area, trying to introduce young families and their kiddos to gardens and fresh food in the area.

- That is amazing.

We definitely look forward to that, Thank you - Thanks.

- Well, if you'd like more information, be sure to check out decibelatx.org.

(lively rhythmic music) (lively rhythmic music continues) Well, that's all for today's show.

Be sure to tune in again next week, Thursday at 7:00 PM.

- And don't forget, you can watch each episode for free in the PBS app.

We'll see you then.

(lively rhythmic music) (lively rhythmic music continues) (lively rhythmic music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from Sally and James Gavin, and also from Suerte, Este, and Bar Toti restaurants, bringing Austin together around culinary excellence to celebrate creativity, conservation, and culture in central Texas.

(quirky music)