How Austin can get to know APD’s chief of police finalists

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department hosted a meet-and-greet event with the two chief of police finalists on Tuesday at the Palmer Event Center and had media availability with both ahead of time.

The two finalists for chief of police are Lisa Davis, who was the Assistant Police Chief of the Cincinnati Police Department, and Jefferey B. Norman, who was the chief of police for the Milwaukee Police Department.

The meet-and-greet was followed by media availability where the two finalists took questions from the media during the day before meeting with the community in the evening.

During the media availability for Davis scheduled for 9-9:30 a.m., she touched on three major key points. Trust, building trust with the community while also building the trust of the staff. Recruitment, Davis mentioned a big part of having boots on the grounds is recruiting more staff. In order to do that, Davis said moral is a must. Building the moral and making the work place comfortable would help with recruitment efforts.

“I want to come in and I want to learn who is there again, show me what you have done. Look at the overall picture and then make changes right. So I am not coming here to cause complete chaos and disruption,” said Davis.

Norman was scheduled to speak at 3:30-4 p.m. As he took the podium questions on what his goals are and how he plans to strengthen the relationship between APD and the District Attorney’s office came right away. Norman said he plans to avoid messiness between the department and other entities.

“No two communities are the same and no two cops are the same. With the tools that we have we can be the same in regards to that something that may work could be of use or maybe we will have to dig a little deeper to figure out what will,” said Norman.

He stated opinions do not matter, what matters is only the actions you take to resolve any issues. Norman focused on community engagement, working on progress within the department not perfection and being transparent with the community.

The meet-and-greet event will be held at Palmer Event Center at 900 Barton Springs Road. It will begin at 6 p.m., and doors will open to the public at 5:30 p.m. Police said free parking will be provided in the adjacent parking garage, which can be accessed from Barton Springs Road or Riverside Drive.

Those attending the event can submit questions for consideration by arriving to the event between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. to present their questions in person, according to APD.

The public will hear opening remarks and a moderated discussion, after that attendees will then have an opportunity to interact with the candidates from 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Austin Police said interpretation services for American Sign Language, Mandarin, Spanish and Vietnamese will be available at the event.

APD said the city manager hopes to present his top candidate for chief of police to the Austin City Council for consideration and approval on Tuesday, July 30.

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