Residents decry Austin police chief search, blame city policies for weak applicant pool

Among the 32 people who applied to be Austin’s next police chief , very few fit the requirements the city had outlined as being a former big city chief — and of the few who fit the bill, most were rife with controversy.

As the crop of candidates was revealed, advocates on all sides bemoaned the city’s process as secretive and one that should have produced a larger field of finalists rather than just the two who are in the running to be the Austin Police Department's next top cop.

Those two finalists are Lisa Davis, an assistant chief from the Cincinnati Police Department, and Jeffrey Norman, chief of the Milwaukee Police Department.

Others noted that the city’s policies, notedly the decision by the City Council in 2020 to slash the Police Department’s budget amid local and nationwide calls for police reform, likely played a role in the limited number of people who applied for the job.

Another deterrent, according to advocates, was the continuing "morale crisis" within the department, fueled by a growing number of vacancies within the department and the city's inability to agree on a long-term contract with the police union.

"The department doesn't feel supported by the city manager (or) by the council members," said Cleo Petricek, co-founder of the Save Austin Now PAC. "So of course, you're not going to be able to recruit a police chief or patrol officers if they don't feel supported."

The process this year was also notedly different than the last time the city had to search for a police chief in 2021 when the city ultimately selected then-interim chief Joseph Chacon to be the next chief.

That year, the city had nearly a dozen more applicants and more who fit the city's vision this year of who they wanted to lead the Police Department.

An analysis by the American-Statesman of this year's applicants showed that less than a third of them had any type of executive leadership experience for a large metro.

Additionally, some of this year's applicants who fit the bill had controversial histories, such as the former Seattle police chief who recently quit after allegations of misconduct toward female employees, according to The Seattle Times .

How did we get here?

The city hired Mosaic Public Partners, the same group hired to recruit the city manager earlier this year, agreeing to pay the firm $60,000 to recruit the police chief candidates.

Applications for the position opened on May 15 and were said to be open until June 10, although city officials later said they would continue taking applications after that date until the position was filled, which is normal for executive leadership positions.

Mosaic created a candidate profile to select the next potential chief, which was done by meeting with key stakeholders and gathering various bits of information from the city, according to a statement sent to the Statesman by the consultant firm.

That profile included a candidate who has “direct experience as a police chief in a large, urban city with issues that are similarly complex to those in Austin,” which is stated on the application.

Mosaic and the city also conducted surveys with community members and within the Austin Police Department to find out what each wanted to see in the next police chief.

Once the profiles were complete, Mosaic said it then used a variety of methods of outreach, including advertising within various police chief associations, direct outreach by the recruiters and social media campaigns.

Consultants with Mosaic then filtered from the entirety of the candidates by seeing which ones aligned with the profiles based on the submitted materials. Those who were in line with the profiles had a video interview, Mosaic said.

The number of candidates was further whittled down after a meeting between Mosaic consultants and the city, which is how the city reached the two finalists. Those finalists were then scheduled for on-site interviews with multiple panels representing various community and city staff members.

Austin says two finalists were 'strong' candidates

Advocates lamented the city and Mosaic’s process, noting that they would have liked to see more finalists presented to the community.

Kathy Mitchell, policy adviser for Equity Action, said she thinks the city could have taken "a pause" to possibly get other applicants rather than fast-tracking the decision.

"There were more chiefs that should have been considered in this moment from the list,” Mitchell said. “There were other big-city chiefs."

Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said he thinks the city faced difficulty recruiting candidates in part because of the "politics of Austin" and the friction over reaching a police union contract.

"We have (a) tumultuous situation in Austin right now, and that has an impact on people wanting to come here," he said.

Petricek said she would have liked to have seen at least five finalists presented to the community rather than just two, noting that a lack of choices does not allow for a fair process.

In 2021, the city first narrowed down the list of candidates to seven finalists, and then went to three, according to previous reporting by the Statesman.

Another key difference from the process in 2021 is that this year no current top-ranking official from the Austin Police Department applied, with interim Chief Robin Henderson stating that she would not apply for the position.

When asked if the city was satisfied with the pool of applicants, Michele Gonzalez, spokesperson for the city manager's office, sent the following statement: “We appreciate all applicants who were willing to be considered for this difficult-to-fill and challenging Chief of Police position. We believe we have two strong finalists and look forward to visiting more with them and introducing them to our community for critical feedback.”

Gonzalez also said the city was satisfied with recruitment efforts by Mosaic, stating that the company “worked tirelessly to recruit applicants for this very important Chief of Police position. We (the City) believe that Mosaic fulfilled its obligation, and we appreciate their good work.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Residents decry Austin police chief search, blame city policies for weak applicant pool