City Council Work Session
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What agenda items and briefings were scheduled for the April 7, 2026 City Council work session?
You're watching a meeting of the Austin City Council with Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor Pro Tem Cheeto Vela, Council Members Natasha Harper-Madison, Vanessa Fuentes, Jose Velasquez, Ryan Alter, Crystal Lane, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis. Zoe Khadri. Mark Duchin. City Attorney Deborah Thomas. City Clerk Erica Brady. And City Manager T.C. Brodnax.
On April 7th, 2026, and I'll call to order this work session of the Austin City Council. We have a quorum of the city council present. We are meeting in the city council chambers, which are located in Austin City Hall at 301 West 2nd Street in Austin, Texas. Members, we have one item on the agenda, and that is a briefing. Before I call up that briefing, let me turn to the city clerk. It's my understanding we have someone signed up to speak.
That's correct, Mayor. We have one speaker on item B1, Savannah Lee.
Good morning. Good morning. I've got this much room to myself. Hi, Mayor and Council Members. Thanks for having me. My name is Savannah Lee. I'm here with Equity Action. I'm a resident of District 1. I'd like to speak on the changes to use of force reporting, specifically our concern with how the data is being defined and measured on Item 4, page 14. Right now, that data separates subjects from uses of force action in a way that obscures what's actually happening on the ground. Under this framework, if one person is subjected to force multiple times by multiple officers or through multiple tactics, it can still be recorded as a single use of force. For example, if three officers each use force on one individual and that person is then tased, that entire incident may be counted as just one use of force.
That doesn't reflect reality. It undercounts the actual volume of force used, masks how many officers are involved, and makes it harder to identify patterns of escalation. This approach limits transparency and undermines accountability. It makes it difficult for counsel, researchers, and the public to answer basic questions. How often is force being used? How many officers are involved? Is force escalating within encounters? And is it increasing or decreasing over time? Good data should help us understand trends and improve outcomes, but when definitions collapse multiple actions into a single count, it prevents meaningful analysis and weakens oversight. This framework should be revised so that each use of force is counted individually and that reporting clearly reflects both the number of officers using force and the number of force events within an incident.
If we're serious about accountability, we need data that tells the truth. Right now, this approach falls short of that standard. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Well, let's take a minute and let our folks gather, and then we'll have the briefing.
For the record, I'll recognize that council members Ellis and Cadre are joining us remotely.
Morning. Morning, Chief.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, Mayor. I have a peace offering for
you.
This is my own hat. It's about time. I just wanted you to know I do have my own gear, even though I represent the Ohio State.
And we had a little exchange. You still were able to work that in, weren't you? Yeah.
Well. Good
for
you. Listen, it was a rough night for Ohio State fans with Michigan winning the national title.
I think we can
agree on that. Yes.
So thank you for being here. Thank you. Chief,
you want to kick us off? Yes, thank you all for this opportunity to talk about our use of force, our task force update. And I'm really looking forward to you hearing from Robin and her expertise here and the great work that we're doing within the department. And I look forward to any questions you have.
Robin? Very good. Thank you so much. I believe this clicker is for me. So for those of you who have not met me before, I'm Robin Engel. I'm a senior research scientist at Ohio State University. But I actually spent most of my career at the University of Cincinnati, over 20 years there, and before that, four years as an assistant professor at Penn State. So I've been basically an academic my entire career, but I work with law enforcement agencies
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Agenda
8 items
1
What agenda items and briefings were scheduled for the April 7, 2026 City Council work session?
0:07–15:04
2
How did public commenters describe problems with the current use‑of‑force reporting framework?
15:04–30:25
3
What policy changes and new reporting standards did Dr. Engel present for Austin Police Department use of force?
30:25–42:01
4
How are the new “reportable incident” categories expected to improve transparency and data accuracy?
42:01–57:54
5
What do the recent arrest and crime‑data trends reveal about the rise in use‑of‑force incidents?
57:54–1:12:33
6
What did the disparity‑ratio analysis show about racial and ethnic equity in use‑of‑force outcomes?
1:12:33–1:26:27
7
How is the ICAT (Integrating Communication Assessment and Tactics) model being integrated into officer training?
1:26:27–1:39:48
8
What are the council’s next steps, questions, and action items following the briefing?
1:39:48–1:51:40
Speakers
7 identified
Natasha Harper-Madison 3 min
Mike Siegel 2 min
Kirk Watson 2 min
José Vela 2 min
Marc Duchen 1 min
Paige Ellis 1 min
José Velásquez
Officials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.