APD Chief Art Acevedo, Sheriff Greg Hamilton, APA President Wayne Vincent On The Trailer Park Show [joQ3 MkaIog]

00:00 Okay. Oh yeah, we got there you go all right hello folks from trailer park uh I do appreciate y'all giving us this opportunity we know of course Sheriff Greg Hamilton Wayne Richard Austin Police Association president and of course chief of course Art Acevedo we all know him and we appreciate y'all giving us this time I want to start with, there's going to be a... we'll have some announcements and it's gonna be a golf tournament. Is this correct Mr. Vincent? Yes sir. Tell us in on that if you can. The Jaime Padron Golf Tournament at Terra Vista up in Round Rock We're looking forward to September 23rd 2 T times Please contact the website Jaime Padron Golf Tournament would love to see out there memory of our good friend. Ten-four and he uh.. You have lots of big time big name people out there too I guess Well I'm gonna be there Let's get it on!

00:50 Yeah, that's reason enough to go right? Sheriff you're also involved in the Gulf Fair. Travis County Sheriff's Office has teamed up with Tohono O'odham Action and also the Johnston High School Alumni Association one of the things that they are trying to do is raise money to build a memorial to put in front of each side memorial and I think they've been trying for 10 years and haven't really got any footing on it so they came over to the sheriff office and asked us to assist them. And Johnston High School, since the Vietnam War has lost 39 alumni and one of the things that we're trying to do is raise about $15,000 help them put up a memorial. That tournament is October 29th at Shadow Glen in Maine Texas

01:36 And you can also go to the Sheriff's website I think. It is on Travis County Sheriff's website. We should have it up on screen before the show goes with it. Being an alma mater of a graduate of Johnston in 1972, we want to make sure that... A lot people come out of Johnston High School and I didn't realize that many had fallen! Well yeah there are many more who served are still alive and that was another issue that someone brought to me is hey wait a minute we serve I mean we were back. You got any community programs going on? Every day too many dimensions it's just short show but you I will be at the Highland Pabon Golf Tournament, I think its gonna be huge and then this Sunday

02:20 is our Run with the Heroes at South Park Meadows. It's going to be a great event, you can go to our website and run Texas' website and I hope folks will come out and run with us that'll also in honor of High Nepal Drone but more importantly we'll raise just as important funds for the Special Olympics which is something really important to us and the police department We have a community event coming up. Alumni from Martin Junior High reunion will be held, Eagles will be held at the office on 7th Street and it's scheduled to be on September 29th from 7pm and it says bring your own potluck finger foods bring your own baby I don't drink so I do not know what that B is for

03:09 Other than that, you know. I think that's bringing it... never mind. Okay. Okay, botana there you go! Yeah, I heard he had to make sure nobody has any warrants out there right? So we invite all those who attended Martin Junior High It opened in 1968 and uh We have quite a few alumni that attended Martin Junior High For those of you who are not familiar with Martin Junior High Allen was the middle junior high that we attended at that time before Martin was open They changed the boundaries once Martin was open, and half of us went to Martin and the others continued at Ellen.

03:47 October the 6th is a voter registration deadline. For those of you that are not registered and want to participate in the presidential election, it's very important that you register by October the 6th. That is the deadline. We have quite a few folks around that can register you or you can go to the Travis County Voter Registration website and register as well So lots of drives coming up. A lot of voter registration dives going on right now and a lot of campaigns to get the voters out so you don't want to miss on this presidential election that's gonna be November 6th. Oh, the sheriff is gonna be out of ballot too! You don't wanna miss that. Okay? Don't wanna miss that. Yeah. So uh... So let it slip once. That's pretty much an announcement I wanted to get down to business here. Get down to business we got a lot of different questions there has been some high profile drug bust lately

04:38 The big heroin bust from our favorite restaurant, who would have fucked it? But I think that the one that made the least news was probably the one that I caught most was two guys from Northeast Austin who had gone to Atlanta with some dope and got caught with a bunch of money in Louisiana by getting this crack so far. And they were members of the drug cartel Is that for me? I guess, sure. Both the officers know this... I don't think it's a surprise to anybody in our community that being in the corridor we're at in Central Texas with 35 corridor that comes from the border all the way to Canada that were huge hub for distribution northbound of illegal drugs and southbound its really guns guns and money goes back into Mexico so one other thing we did 2007 that we directed our organized crime division is

05:32 They're a very specialized unit and I wanted them to focus on the big players, not in the mid-level street narcotics going on in the city because that's another unit. And I'm pretty proud of the fact that if you look at the last few years there have been quite a few huge arrests that have gone federal and we've put some really bad people in prison where they belong so they can't be poisoning our kids That's a good one. Central Texas Organized Crime Task Force, is this what we're talking about? Absolutely in our organized crime division and the sheriff's guys are working with us. Multi-agency? And it's not just Travis County Sheriff's Office and APD we also work with the surrounding counties also

06:16 I believe that the relationship with law enforcement in this particular community is untouched by any other agency around the country. We work extremely close, not only on the drug trafficking but human trafficking also. Well this is one of things that I did like to emphasize was close cooperation between them these fusion centers This is what helps a lot? Well I bring that up because Mohammed El Lebiri seems to have had access to sensitive databases and local intelligence reports from right here in the Austin one, and evidently was trying to make political attacks on the governor.

07:00 And so I'm wondering, you all contribute intelligence information to the fusion center. Well our fusion center is not really focused on political thought or political process it is actually by law we have to focus on criminal nexus there has to be a criminal nexus and for us what that's afforded us to do We have 18,000 plus police departments in this country. 18,000 police departments with different pieces of the puzzle to solve crime and unfortunately information sharing environment has been very poor it's a... It's been non-existent or bad at best as the result of the Fusion Center we've been able to bring the agencies here in Central Texas together and be able to collate some of their

07:46 Pieces of those puzzles so we can be a little bit more efficient and more effective, and I think it has worked. I'm not sure Well this wasn't actually a political attack Information he was gaining information on our terrorism intelligence and claiming that Our governor was Islam Islamophobia is that right? Islamophobia or I guess that he's uh What the heck would that word be? That our governor was anti-Islam. And so I guess he did not sell this information, he said here it shot some of these materials to the media outlet. He allegedly used documents to claim the department was promoting Islamophobia

08:34 I don't know what lemmophobia is, but as far as the fusion center... One of the things about the fusion center. The great thing about it is that we have people located inside together They don't have to get on the telephone they drive over all these agencies are in that fusion center All they have to do is walk over Well, how did this guy get this information? I mean uh... you have proper security i guess. Yeah you know that's my main question. You got a guy on the internet telling me about a questionnaire getting it and I haven't heard of any. I'm not aware of any security breach at the intelligence center quite frankly one other things we work very closely is thinking I do as police chief in our department building bridges with all communities whether its

09:22 people that follow Islam or Christians or Jews, rich or poor. We try to cross all those economic and religious groups to bring people together because at the end of the day what makes our country I think second-to-none is we are a melting pot for the world and unfortunately diversity in our state and immigration have become like four letter words despite the fact that diversity and immigration is what's made this country such a great country. We've brought people from around the world, quite frankly the world is hungry, thirsty and oppressed to come here and they put together pretty good country. This guy evidently worked for Department of Homeland Security so I guess he had access. Well we'll get back to you guys but it's your people who have been trashing the immigrants nowadays

10:11 I'm talking about my people. Your people, your people. Republicans. Let's talk about my side of the political aisle compared to his side of the political aisle. I am on the Democrat part and he is Republican. We will also ask some about law enforcement has problems with liability which... Before you go there can you give me that word again? That phobia? Islamophobia. I guess you know from trailer park, whatever the heck it is. Can i ask a question on the fusion thing? Okay yes. Because I want to...I know that at the very onset it was a very controversial issue uh the fusion the creation of the Fusion Center but once uh it's been in place how has it been

10:59 effective and do you know of any particular case where it had it not been there, you know we probably would have not had the information needed. Well I can't think of any particular case but one of the positives is about what I just said that those individuals are working in the same building within the same vicinity and they're able to share information And I would say that we probably have solved a lot of cases faster because of that. Without getting into specific cases, I absolutely am aware of cases that the analytics provided and interoperability communication occurred between agencies has had a very positive impact and I'm trying to think of a specific case even though I've been briefed there's so much going on

11:52 But it has been a tremendous tool. Listen, one of the reasons we have so much crime in this country is that we have... One of the reasons why we're one of most inefficient law enforcement models in the world because of politics everybody wants to have their own police department every county has to have their own sheriff you know there's so much bureaucracy that it doesn't lend itself to efficiency and so if you look at the rest of the world most countries have a handful of departments In our country I don't think they'll ever change But it's 18,000 plus departments. So it makes it very difficult and what we've done with the intelligence center is bring us together so we can cut some of that red tape be able to share information lawfully protecting people's rights and focusing on criminal activity and Keeping our community a much safer making much safer which I think there's one for everybody well yeah, that's uh you could trash national criminal organizations

12:46 I guess they cross all your boundaries, so. Well not only do they cross all of our boundaries and all of our agencies they also put a lot of money into counterintelligence you know they're bringing in folks that are former military former special forces from around the world that are really selling out uh... all their skills to these transnational groups and it's important for us to work just as smart as they are and leverage all of our talents. Uh..I've received calls as LULAC you know district called LULAC and I've received calls from individuals. The reason I ask that question is because maybe you can answer this particular issue, but it doesn't fall into the Fusion Center. There have been cases where officers have arrived at a particular home looking for a particular subject

13:34 yet that subject was already in jail. So is this a slip in the crack or something that the Fusion Center doesn't deal with? How could that have occurred? The center can't tell you somebody's in jail if an investigating agency didn't take time to find out, or ask for help We're not going insert ourselves typically but one of first things I've done as police officer when conducting investigation is before I go look for the bad guys, I run them to see if he or she's in jail. And that's just a pretty basic step of the investigative process so typically though, I would say in that case and under that example and I don't know poor Vincent has said a word it seems like where the investigator was forgot to check that box. Checked to see if they were

14:21 and Sheriff Hamilton's chair. And mistakes are going to happen, that's when I come in and represent those officers that the chief hammers because they made a mistake but... No you don't but what i'm saying is when you have situations like that it's uh... that's just anomaly and it does happen your looking for somebody there in jail any information didn't get passed on sometimes the detective didn't look at information up They had same name as other people like Jesse Contreras my business partner, and they hauled him off for being a bank robber. I thought man! Yeah it works in your...anyway. Yeah but one of the other things that you have to realize is that this fusion center here in central Texas is fairly uh...in its infancy stages so you're going to have those individuals that are going to slip through the cracks until this becomes a second nature for these individuals that need to use the fusion center

15:19 Well, you kind of alluded to the number of law enforcement agencies within a specific county or city. Fifteen years ago I know here in Travis County we intertained what they call the Amigo Plan which sought for Austin Metropolitan Government and one of the issues was metropolitan police So what are y'all's position on the creation of Metro Police as opposed to having UT, AISD, Park Police, ACC? What else we have like you mentioned Chief. Well I can tell you that that has been thrown around when I first came on as the Sheriff here and uh...I think it is going be an issue not necessarily with law enforcement but its gonna be the issues with units in government city council

16:08 the county commissioners. Those individuals are going to have to come up with some type of concept, but I don't...I think it'll be too much fighting in order to make that happen. That's my feeling. Don't they have that in LA? Portland or somewhere? In Miami I know they have MetroGov. Well, Metrodade you've got Las Vegas metro The problem is from a monetary standpoint there's gonna come a day where it won't be in our careers because unfortunately we've hit rock bottom But there's going to come a time where the taxpayers simply cannot afford to pay for, let's say Travis County. Don't just think about the police. Think about how many councils do we have? How many mayors? How many councils? How many city halls?

16:51 when what would be more efficient is a metropolitan government with representation for each one of those former cities. Just think about this, you've got Sunset Valley, you've got Austin, you've got Round Ro- I mean uh... Flugerville? Flugerville. You've just, you've got Westlake, you've got Rollingwood, you've got Bee Caves, you've got Lakeway There's approximately 29 agencies that bring prisoners to our jail 29 different names. Travis County. Great Hamilton Holiday Camp? That answer to 29 political entities and every one of those entities have to have their own city hall, so as a taxpayer I'm speaking more as a taxpayer...I'm looking forward to the day where taxpayers say

17:33 We've got too much redundancy. We need to start collapsing government and having more of a metropolitan approach." Well then, Vincent I'm pretty sure your officers didn't have a whole book whenever they booked someone in order to because i'm pretty sure that each entity also has different rules or different procedures or different processes? Well that's what makes it difficult in the scenario you're giving where our officers go to a house and someone is in jail we don't know if another agency made that arrest and just hadn't been reported yet It creates those problems. The myth, when we're talking about the fusion center, the myth is this is some gigantic intelligence gathering apparatus that's going to gather new information. This is information

18:11 police agencies all over have that information. It's not new information, it's just a new way of sharing that information and making sense of it all and being able to the famous after 9-11 connect the dots so it's not new information it's just a better way gathering that information the more we come together the more effective that info is going to be. And your office I'm sure would like to see that happen? Our officers survive on information Had we had information, perhaps and in this case it probably wouldn't have happened. But let's say on when we lost our brother on April 6th if we had information that this individual for instance may have had that kind of problem We might have approached that differently I'm not saying with that scenario would ever happen but we live and survive on the information

19:04 That may save our lives or may save the lives of the community if we have more information approaching there than we currently do have. Yeah, I didn't mean about it Greg Hamilton's holiday camp! I've been there and it wasn't a... Got to know respect for the kind of people So your next ride needs be in the front seat not on the backseat? I hope so Just no riding at all anymore but anyway I hate to push but know we got an audience with some questions And I'm sure one of them would like to come up here this microphone who wants to be first Between the infiltrating which I didn't see anything wrong with Occupy Austin and of course now we have Okay, well try Rudy first state your name. Howdy gentlemen my name is Rudy Phillips and uh? I'm not from here. I'm not from here. I'm sorry I'm from Chicago and where I come from

20:03 I never knew a black man that wasn't arrested over 26, you know. And on the application they asked you have ever been arrested? Well I got an arrest record as long as your arm but it never stood a day in the penitentiary but this was away of depriving black men from getting a job. You like that in Texas? Well I can tell you here in Travis County and the City of Austin, that they took the lead on this. And then Travis County followed. They have removed that box in asking that particular question One of the other things that I can tell you about Travis County Sheriff's Office We have first of all it was doing when there was a real bad economic downturn

20:49 We put on a job fair over at the Expo Center, and I think we had over 2,000 people that showed up there. And the way that...the only way that an employer could come to that is their willingness to hire somebody who had a record. Uh, and I don't know how many people got a job out of there but now twice a month we have employers who are willing to hire people who have a criminal record come to our jail. right now today and I think we're going on our fourth year but the city of Austin was the leader on removing that box off the application. Wait a minute now, did you say that you got job fairs in jail? At the jail inside the jail. Damn! I thought... We don't want you to come here. Say it again. Huh? Say that one more time

21:40 I'm sorry. You want to say that again? Okay, well first of all i said do you have job fairs in jail and i think you said yeah. I did. And i said damn! I thought that jail was for punishment. I mean uh what other kind of a hugger thug And a cotton car do you have there? That particular program, it's not my job to punish them. Our job is to maintain the safety and security inside the jail and my job is to try to help these individuals go back out of this jail and live a positive haven't

22:16 positive impact in their community so uh... you can call it hug a thug or whatever else you just called it but I think that's good police work. We call it restorative justice in Travis County and we really believe these folks are going to come back the choice is if you could help somebody get a job there's one less excuse than live the life of a criminal and so, I was proud of the city when they removed that box so long as its not a sensitive position. There are certain positions ie police officer Somebody that's going to be a paramedic potentially. It's gonna be... A human center job? You might want to know somebody who has got history of being, you know, a rapist or molester before you put them in certain sensitive positions but absent that we absolutely believe in restorative justice We have the re-entry roundtable here that criminal justices agencies The DAs office, the county attorney everybody comes together

23:09 with private partners and public partners to try to see how we can help people transition from jail back into society. And if that blows your mind, I'm gonna tell you something else that we're doing We have a GED program. We help individuals get their GED that's in the jail. We also have a contract with the Austin Community College where we teach inmates computer skills how to work on computer. We teach them how to write a resume So we have a bunch of programs off in the jail. You mean you can go to college in jail? You can't go to college, you might think your in college I'm talking about a GED. Alright Rudy. I'm amazed man. Thank you Rudy.

23:50 Travis County and the City of Austin are very progressive in that arena, in regards to giving folks a second chance if you will. And one of the things we speak aloud to our young kids is be very cautious and preach the prevention of getting a felony when you're very young at 18 or 19, because that felony will follow you for life. It prohibits you from many opportunities to participate because of that. So it's real hard

24:28 You know, even though they have these type of programs I mean the limit is to what type of jobs you can get. But in all fairness in our county and a lot of counties around the country we understand that young people are going to make poor decisions and that's why we have a lot of opportunities for folks They had deferred adjudication We have a lot of opportunities for folks where those charges actually get dropped altogether and eventually even expunged And that's the county and the city taking the lead to make sure we don't create a lifetime criminal for one mistake. That we don't start a cycle, you know one of things I've been talking about a lot about and talked with the sheriff about is how we've criminalized childhood to certain extent where when were kids if we got in a fight, a fistfight

25:11 they take us over to the counselor's office, they chew us out and give a Saturday detention. That would be the end of it. And paddle! They would paddle on us. I was going to say... Oh they paddled? With a hole in their bullet. Mine still hurts. Now they call the police. They'll call the EISD police. Well now if you paddle your kid, the police will throw ya in jail. Or Child Protective Services nowadays. Another thing is that we have police right there inside the schools now Yeah. And teachers are trying to make the officers the disciplinarians instead of addressing them. So now there's pushback from law enforcement to try and get away from that because these are kids, they're going to do stupid things. Okay. Okay Mr. Presley. Good man, state your name and good luck.

25:53 Hi, I'm Dr. Laura Presley and I am a business owner here in Austin and my question is going to be for Sheriff Hamilton We know that there's a lot of people frustrated with the TSA at the airport And frisking of citizens and now most recently the TSA has been found At least in Houston found to be swabbing drinks and inspecting your drinks after you've passed the security zone I'm a sexual assault survivor and I cannot stand it when the TSA gropes me. They put their hands between my breasts, they touch my genitals and put their hands between my legs. And Sheriff Hamilton? I cannot...I hate this! There's a lot of sexual assault survivors here in Travis County who hate this behavior So my question is more related to you sheriff um and also Mr. Vincent and Chief Acevedo You three took

26:52 You three took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States before you took office. I want to read you the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, The right of people to be secure in their persons houses papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated. The TSA is violating the fourth amendment. Sheriff Hamilton what can we do about this? And what will you commit to doing Well, again those are the TSA's rules and there is nothing that me as a sheriff can go in there and dictate what actions these individuals... how they their policies and procedures. I believe that there needs to be a conversation with the higher-ups

27:40 to address those particular issues. Number one is simple, you could start off by talking with the congressman and from there moving forth and talking with more and getting this conversation on the table I've heard this argument all the time i think it's totally inappropriate for individual to touch your breasts or your genitals area I think that's inappropriate and I think it needs to be addressed with TSA And I might add, it's not only inappropriate. It is against the Constitution and it's against the law and you as Sheriff are the absolute authority on the law here in Travis County. I think what she said if I could... Can you nullify federal stuff right? Yes he can. You can. As county sheriff, can you nullify federal laws? He says no! Well there's also the 10th amendment so

28:38 Anyway, thank you Thank you But I want to impress on all three of you You upheld you took an oath to uphold the Constitution and you're not doing it your departments are not upholding the Constitution I'm gonna be real clear about that. I have to take exception with that because The Constitution isn't based on your personal interpretation or let's you know tags interpretation we're a nation of laws and for our nation to work is It may not be perfect. It's absolutely flawed But for you to say that we don't abide by the Constitution, the United States Supreme Court is the court of land. And unless they tell me I do something that is completely out in left field, that's the law we follow. They say tomorrow that TSA can't make those searches and the TSA decides, if we don't care what the Supreme Court says, I'm willing to bet that my position would change because now

29:37 the court, the highest court in the land saying TSA that is absolutely a violation of fourth amendment. It's a violation of tenth amendment and I think at that point we have the authority absent that decision We have to abide by it kind like blood draw that i think alot of folks don't like well The day that United States Supreme Court tells me we cannot do non-consensual testing That same minute were stopping because thats the rules that we play under and thats this country that we have and the way it works. I would never knowingly tolerate my people not following the Constitution, and you know what? And I do have...I've been okay, I'm a police officer they know I am a police officer. I'm coming back this is funny story. I'm traveling armed okay. I am carrying a weapon on my person

30:31 And because it was a one-way trip, the S came up. SSS you know what that means? Secondary Search. And they're searching the heck out of me and I'm thinking to myself... I'm coming on board with a gun. Does it make any sense to you that you need to be basically doing what you just described? So, I do understand where you're coming from but at the end of the day we have to follow the laws of the nation and as it comes to the constitutionality of law its really up to the Supreme Court to make that decision. But the Supreme... One comment quickly Mr. Ritter The Supreme Court has ruled that without probable cause

31:10 Chief Acevedo and your people cannot do what the TSA is doing because they are another organization doesn't mean that they're not subject to the laws. But did I think that what has to happen is somebody needs to take TSA and sue them for that, then keep kicking it up until the Supreme Court makes a final decision? rendering or making the judgment that it's unconstitutional. That's why we're kind of stuck, people don't realize that airports are really federal and air transportation really falls under federal law where we have very limited jurisdiction for example last week we had I don't remember the name of a band some guy

31:52 interfered with the on an aircraft, interfered with a flight crew. Well we can't charge them with the interference of the flight crew that's actually federal law because it's involving aviation yeah but the Constitution doesn't say that we had can exclude things that's not what this says and you guys took an oath and you're not upholding upholding it period thank you Thank You Bail Throughout the history of our community there's always been this issue of police relations with the communities. Vincent, I know that you and Nelson Linder took an effort or are making a lead in trying to repair that could you give us some feedback on that? How is it going? Is it working? Is it being effective

32:44 Yes, a little bit at the time. There's been kind of come together on having some serious discussions that we haven't had for years and you know every once in awhile there is high profile incident where one of our officers has used deadly force and it's a tragedy to the community, family and officer What we have said is, we're trying everything that we can from the police officer standpoint. The chief through training and technology and policy does everything that he can to try to eliminate those instances But the bottom line is, is that there's a common denominator in all of these instances and that's where someone decided to be combative and not cooperate or not comply with the police officer's instructions. Whether the police officer in their mind was right or wrong, and those things although they... when these happen 99% of the time no one gets hurt

33:39 It has deadly consequences sometimes when you choose to fight, assault the police run from the police and those kind of things. So we're reaching out to the community also telling them if you believe the officer is wrong is usurping their authority there are all kinds of avenues in which you can address that problem with a police officer just don't fight them on the streets so we can avoid these tragedies And that message is being embraced by the community. And our officers are embracing the message, that they understand that they're held accountable. They've embraced the fact that they film just about everything that they do so there has been a coming to him. Okay well film everything you need to go ahead your name? My name is Lynn Foster and I'm a member of the Peaceful Streets Project and we record police activity

34:29 Even on the trailer park show We do that good we do that protect our citizens used to be Police have the motto protected and serve when they don't do that anymore They have no obligation to protect and serve you And so that's why we did for ourselves at to the extent that we It's been I've read that You're eight times more likely to die from law enforcement than a terrorist. And unfortunately, we've seen since 9-11 a lot of militarization and federalization of police forces. That's very unfortunate. My question is why can't we have a program that will systematically remove bad cops from the force?

35:22 Well, I think if you ask the union president... In fact he wrote a question. That's his question. Will that be all? Well, I think if you asked the union president, he'll tell you that you have a program and it is called The Police Administration. A recent article in The Statesman brought up that in the last ten years this administration has fired the majority of officers A lot of folks don't realize it and on top of that a lot of officers quit. You see the handwriting on the wall so they quit, and what it really brought out that I thought was huge for me that gave me a great sense of pride is external complaints from the community

36:00 is down, has gone down the last five years. But internal complaints have gone up and to me that builds a picture in my mind of we're doing something right. Officers realize that holding each other accountable and he'll tell you that we will argue about it a little bit I expect my supervisors to supervise. I expect my officers, when they see something that is clearly wrong that they need to report it. It's required by policy and when they fall short we hold them accountable so if you look at the data and you look at the stats You will see that were a department that holds our people very high standards When we think their right

36:36 some of these uses of force where folks don't think that they're deadly uses a force. We're going to base our decisions on the law and on the evidence, and not on which way the wind's blowing but I think we are heading in absolutely right direction And quite frankly if you think were bad department like taking a field trip because when we come back i promise you will be very happy to be policed by the Austin Police Department Where could we get the data that you're talking about? We can get it for you. I'll get you an email and tell me what you need, and we'll get all the information As the chief says, we sometimes have conflict about there's a lot of discipline in the department

37:15 And so for someone to say, how can we get rid of bad cops? What I'm questioning is what's your definition of a bad cop. Is that someone that arrested somebody and you don't believe they should have been arrested? I will tell you any bad cops that we have in the Austin Police Department as soon as this chief finds out about it, they're gone. There's a history of that there's been 13% of our workforce has disciplined in the last five years. If you don't think this chief is vigilant in any kind of misconduct, you haven't seen the numbers. My name's Craig Gandy I host a live television program JCI Live on Thursday nights my wife and daughter are both producers here at Channel Austin and uh...I don't have any complaints

38:06 I have traveled all over the world and seen the police force throughout the world, and I am pleased with the quality of service that we have here. Chief Acevedo what you're doing to reach out into the community through events such as Keeling Elementary School where you had officers there. We filmed a project at the Austin Community Fest and yet officers there with horses that the kids were petting the horse climbing in and out of SWAT trucks setting on the motorcycles of the and they were nice BMW motorcycle these are you know, but the the pal the police athletic organization reaching out into You know to me with kids for youth group. These are the differences that are making that quality of the police force in Austin that That are different than you'll find other place in the country people come into our city They look

39:02 I've seen for the special events people come in with attitudes that they don't find that same attitude here because the level of service y'all are providing. The Sheriff Hamilton going down to Travis County Courthouse on 7th and 35 there, I had a ticket and the quality of service that your people provide you know it wasn't made uh... Coming into our community We want our community to grow we want to that. We have the same problems everyone else has immigration taxes the groping of people but uh you know they But we've we know that we have a voice to listen to but my question is when we do have organizations I want to partner with The police with this Travis County Sheriff

39:56 What are the points of contact that they can reach out to identify how they can partner and collaborate on projects where you all come in and help with these type of organizations? Well, there's many ways with the Sheriff's Office. Number one we have building bridges brick by brick would meet the second Friday of every month over at not David Chapel what's it off Martin Luther King I'll get it in a minute. But it's BW McClendon is the pastor over there, we meet there to talk about issues here in the community but also... Mount Zion? No, Mount Zion is where I go

40:40 individuals can contact me and depending on what they want to partner, what they want to do as far as a partnership I will set up a meeting with that particular unit. And we will sit down matter of fact today we had an individual that's with the veterans intervention program that wanted I've had the privilege of having a visit with individuals who have fought in the military war, and that have PTSD. To have a military person come in there and help them get resources. And I hook them up with our counseling services. And this happens all the time so the availability to partner with us...all you have to do is call the Sheriff's Office

41:21 Thank you sir. Thank You Craig, Craig also does help us a lot here at the show so we appreciate it. Or just call my office as well 974-5030 and we're always looking for opportunities to do this. My complaint is BMWs? We don't buy anymore Harleys I guess. Everybody got time for that just go on. Congratulations on the new helicopter you guys. Thank you very much. How kind is he? It's an A star helicopter. Neurocopter again? Yeah, B3. And what's exciting for me having come from LA County with all the fires is that if you go up to and I've talked about this before we go up there to Manila, Montbenelli and you look out there's a lot of

42:00 There's a lot of fuel for fires here and we have not had the 100 year event here. Well I'm just thinking they can just build helicopters down there. The problem is the capacity in the performance standards well it doesn't have the open cabin which is what uh, we wanted for our flight crew. Okay oh Chris? And the church is St James Baptist Church. So any organization can inquiry and attend those meetings Sheriff? Yes anybody in the community I just want to give a word of caution because people will come to me on regular basis and I can save the world if the police department could give me $200,000. Okay here's the deal...I can do it for half that price! We don't have very much fat left in our budget so if that is why you are meeting with us.. Alright I'll do it for quarter that price Yeah If you got sweat we're ready for ya Alright alright Moe hit it The Boss

42:53 Alright, Mrs. Polky here. I want to thank you gentlemen for coming in tonight and it's been a wonderful show so far But as being a former member of the Austin Police Watch Copwatch years ago with Mr. Nees, police chief we got together and sat down with you as a group, as was the police chief with the sheriff's department whoever was there We sat down and set out protocols for what kind of behavior we could do what we couldn't do And I just want to reiterate is there any way that this Austin Safe Streets project could come down contact you in get some protocols set so that they're not interfering with what you're doing and your guys aren't getting mad at what they are doing because we had like, we would stay away. We wouldn't interfere. We'd film and it was not only for your guy's protection it was also for the protection of the citizen as well. Well absolutely! You know I think that anybody who thinks our cops aren't used to being filmed by now...I mean.. I've never seen so many people filming cops like here in Austin Everybody has got a camera there? Thank-you Ma Here is the problem

43:55 There are some people that think you have the right to actually engage, intervene and interfere. If you really want to catch a cop doing something wrong You probably shouldn't let them know your filming in the first place And it's not the majority of them because the majority Safe streets. Peaceful Streets Project. The vast majority of those folks are just quietly videotaping and they're not engaging, they're not inserting themselves, they're not agitating and so I think their hearts in the right place but there's just one or two people that feel that they have a right to actually become part of the contact and you don't have a right to do that! I'm sorry we're just going up the grid is if you look at the thousands of times that we've been video taped there been 2-3 arrests in the 5 years I've been here

44:43 We're going to need to hurry up here. Again, thank you gentlemen for all coming down tonight I appreciate you being down here So we'd be willing to meet with anybody at any time That's true! Thank You! I called them up they come on this show so you know I do want to mention that when they were interviewing for the police chief for Austin Yeah way back Way back I had the opportunity to be one of those members that interviewed or spoke to Chief Acevedo at that time. And, I said well the only way I'm going to support you is if you are hired chief and reinstate the PAL program because it had, because of budget. I used to work at the South Austin Rec Center in my younger days. We gotta hurry up! Okay but it's a real good program because this is one of those programs that introduces the police to the community and families in a positive way as opposed to always you know in the negative way when they come and arrest mom or dad or the uncle or whatever But you know what I mean? I remember that It was on my first Tuesday when I had my own little community forums that drove the city crazy

45:43 I wanted to meet the activists of Austin so they got to know me and my art. And i want to meet you all but it's not just police activities league we started explore program that was gone and now we have the uh... urban scouting initiative where we have about fifteen sixteen hundred kids in east austin most of them are at risk from either single family homes some of them have parents in prison and guess what were delivering to them? Scouting in their schools The data's clear. If you participate in a program like that for five years or more, the high school graduation rate goes up to 92%. Think about that when we're actually facing a 50%, 55% dropout rate in many inner city schools so I'm proud of what we're doing We are not doing enough because it takes money and time and we all know our resources are very limited but as long as I am chief we will never get rid off those youth programs

46:33 And one of the other things that I can add about Austin Police Department is that we have partnered with their organization. We have a barbecue team, APD has a barbecue team. We've come together to be apart of The Rodeo, The Star Of Texas Rodeo this last year collectively I believe that we raised about $40,000 but all in all, the entire...all of the barbecue teams we raised about 300 thousand dollars So we are very involved in the community and we do a lot of things together. And a big piece to that is really the Austin Police Association, and Wayne Vincent who's here I don't want to speak for you but his heart is in that and they do a great job Well our officers actually go out there and volunteer three days of a lot of hard work and food We fed up to nearly 4,000 people

47:24 at that place and it's good for our officers too because they're not out there making arrests. They're cooking for the public and they're giving back, and they love it! And so The Association couldn't do without our members volunteering their time and in a lot of instances, their spouses and children coming out to do that too So we are very proud of our cops. Sabrina go quick Hi my name is Sabrina I studied law here in Austin An old criminal professor told me at ACC he told me Whenever the laws don't bend, you know certain people get thrown to one side or the other. You know you have your three types of criminals Your Norps your slugs and your down-and-out criminals We're going through a recession And I'm still seeing it I know certain circles aren't seeing it But I'm seeing it and I'm wanting to know if both the county in the city are aware of this What are y'all doing anywhere from evictions? to homicides

48:19 And today actually is a World Suicide Prevention Day on the eve of 9-11. I know we've got a lot of stuff to look at economically, Well, we've got about eight minutes so uh... I know it's a bit fresh here but i'd like to hear from her. I can tell you as far as the evictions those are done by the constables office. The constables are doing the eviction but as far as the economy that downslide of the economy one of things that we have found is that there more and more suicides individuals are committing a lot of suicide So that's one of, and there is a lot of individuals that are trying to have suicide by cop. And when I say that means when an officer approaches them they come out with the gun or they try to attack him with the knife and we've been fortunate. One of things our officers have either been able to take

49:17 in custody without using deadly force or use a taser to prevent those individuals. But I believe that it's, a lot of people are going over the edge because they have lost everything. Okay? Real quickly there still seems to be an issue out in the community that officers are profiling how do you respond to them They look like thugs. Pull them over! I can tell you that we just did our report, all the law enforcement agencies have to turn in a racial profiling report This has been the fifth year that we have gotten no racial profiling complaints

50:03 Yeah, and you look at our complaints. They're really... I can't think of more than one that we have gotten for racial profiling One of the indicators that you have to be careful about is consent searches Consent searches... When I was a young cop they used to tell me hey good cops don't rely on consent search That's a lazy cop Good cops develop true legitimate probable cause We use them very sparingly. They've gone down and so I think that's a good thing we just Changed our policy that require the consent search to not only be videotaped audiotaped But also that it'd be written consent To make sure people understand that this is in fact a voluntary It's something that you can what happens if you say no

50:48 then the officer has to move on. If somebody asks you for consent and you say no, it's done unless they have probable cause that they can articulate for a prosecutor and jury that they had specific probable cause but the other thing is we're going to have in next couple of weeks will be rolling out three more I'm not ready to talk about yet with three more changes in policy that I think is going to help build even more trust and not break it down. So, I think you'll like them We'll have to hear from one of y'all about this. Anyway, we're going to run out quick. Heather? I know you got something good to ask. Heather always has good stuff to ask. My name is Heather Fazio with Texans for Accountable Government One of my concerns and the concerns of Texas for Accountable Government is the militarization and centralization of power when it comes to law enforcement. We see it with the fusion centers, we see it with Urban Shield which is a full-scale military exercise

51:49 that both the city of Austin and Travis County are going to be participating in. Is that right, Chair? The federal government is known for trampling our rights and I think it's incumbent upon our local leaders to stand up for us when they're calling bad shots so my question to you is in the case a disaster or terrorist act who was calling the shot DHS or your conscience No, I mean if we have jurisdiction whatever it is. We're going to retain jurisdiction and we're going to investigate whatever the incident is. Urban Shield...I don't think there's any military...I don't know what you are talking about in terms of militarization? I don't think that there's any military involved. That's gonna be EMS fire different agencies but I don't believe and I'll double check Heather to make sure so I don't look like a fool but I don't recall

52:43 any participation by any federal entity. Now back in the state of California, I can tell you having been in the State Police we had something similar to Urban Shield that was a statewide exercise and the role that was played by the feds was that we wanted to test how long would it take to put police cars as a state agency you have to respond to mutual aid How long would it take to put a company of officers specially trained officers for whatever the mission may be Into a c5 or C 130 to move the options and equipment statewide, so we actually use them But I don't believe that they're part of this but I'll double check and especially remind me on an email

53:21 and I'll let you know whether or not. Sure, part of the authorization from the city of Austin was it's called a full-scale military exercise and in when Urban Shield has been executed around the country not only our military but foreign military has also participated which at least my second question is are you okay with training our local peace officers with military not only from this country but also from others? I've been in law enforcement 26 plus years I have never trained or witnessed a Foreign Military Service train with those people I've been around. And, and I don't know in the five years that we've ever trained with foreign military now. We have provided...we have a partnership with the 3rd Cav out of Fort Hood where they're doing a lot of police work really. If you think about what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan they are doing a lot of... World policing? Right Well, I'll leave it to define but there do a lot of things traditionally have been law enforcement role

54:16 And what we tried to do was teach them how to investigate crimes. We trained them, it was the other way around so they could be successful and not get themselves hurt and most importantly so they can do things right and not be like an army if that's what their mission was. So I'll check on that and I'll get back to you especially please send me an email if you remember but I don't get back to by the end of the week just send me an email And I'm not familiar with the military being a part of this, but I do believe that there's going to be federal agencies that will be a part of the urban shield. The only time that I can think of Travis County even involved with the military is when there is competition like a SWAT competition but not as far as training is concerned. Okay we've only got like two minutes quick you want say anything quick Francis? Francis Gabriel right?

55:07 And then I want to quickly you only got like a minute and then we gotta cut off and let him say something before we go. All right my name is Gabriel Nela, i've been in Austin for about seven months and I've gotta say this-I want to compliment you Chief Acevedo In the time that I've been here um... I come from a city that has a lot of corruption going on West Texas you can probably figure out where it's at So you've been on that field trip I always talk about? Yes But I wanna tell you something real quick I've gotta commend you for the fact whenever there's an issue comes up You're there and you're talking to the people, you're talking to the people on the radio. You're talking to people on TV saying okay yes we either screwed up or we didn't screw up and here's how we're doing it And if you have to make any changes your on it like that so I just wanted to commend you on that part Thank you sir! Okay we are gonna have our

55:52 Our second annual 4th of July parade. So I want to let you all know ahead of time, Chief, Sheriff It's going to be that weekend on the fourth of July. Okay? I'll send you emails and remind you so we can work it out. We do appreciate y'all coming out. It has been interesting. Wish we had more time! I do like a lot of good questions here at Lexington Student Center Controversial, but I thought after 9-11 we need that kind of thing. But like to say we also worked really closely with TAG to try and allay some other concerns and Councilmember Morrison, I remember the day that were passing that you know We can agree to disagree on a lot of issues but I would challenge people like I challenged my cops to say that my heart's not in right place

56:33 I challenge people that really know me and I think Heather knows me pretty well. My heart's in the right place, we may not agree how to get there but at the end of day we have the same goal a safe city, police department that is respectful for peoples rights and then we do fact obey and respect the constitution. We got 30 seconds so we just have to say goodnight we'll be back. I appreciate you all coming out. Wayne Vincent had plenty to say before he was out on another forum and the sheriff of course is always welcome out and good luck on your coming up election uh i don't think you'll have any problems well then you've always had a good saying that chief we're here to please you and work with you don't get in trouble or you won't find