Proposition A earns victory, Prop B rejected in Saturday's election
Austin voters showed their support for stronger police oversight Saturday as Proposition A garnered an overwhelming majority and Proposition B was rejected, a clear statement of how most residents would like to see allegations of officer misconduct handled in the city.
Travis County's Austin voters, who make up the majority of the count, were 79.86% in favor of Proposition A, and 81.09% voted against Proposition B. More than 10% of Travis County's 752,857 voters cast a ballot in Saturday's election, according to the county clerk.
In Williamson County, 61.68 % of Austin voters were for Proposition A and 62.24% were against Proposition B. Hays County, which had only 11 total votes cast in the race, rejected Proposition A with six votes against. But nine votes were against Proposition B.
All results are unofficial until canvassed.
Proposition A, which was circulated by the criminal justice nonprofit Equity Action, would return powers to the civilian police oversight office and allow investigators to access all police records and interview witnesses while gathering evidence of police misconduct. The measure would also allow the Office of Police Oversight to make recommendations on discipline to the police chief, increasing transparency.
This comes after a December 2021 decision in an arbitration hearing stripped away powers of the oversight office to investigate complaints of misconduct, members of Equity Action have said.
More: Austin police union takes a side on dueling oversight plans, finance records show
Proposition B, which joined the ballot earlier this year after a petition drive by Voters for Oversight and Police Accountability, would uphold the arbitration ruling and essentially keep the Office of Police Oversight from conducting initial reviews of complaints or being part of the evidence-gathering portion of an investigation. The measure has been financially backed by the Austin Police Association, the city’s police union.
Chris Harris, president of Equity Action's board, said Saturday’s vote was a huge victory for all of Austin.
“This is a new era of police oversight and transparency in Austin,” Harris told the American-Statesman. “This will help deter some of this harmful behavior and prevent public dollars from being spent on these huge settlements.”
Additionally, Harris said the group is looking forward to the city moving quickly to implement the new provisions and hopes the city and the Austin Police Associations will return to the table “as soon as possible to work on a contract that fulfills the proponents of Prop A.“
Still the issue is complicated, even with support from Austin voters. Advocates for Equity Action long feared that both propositions, which are completely different, would pass and create a legal limbo.
But now the attention is on Senate Bill 2209, by Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-Fort Worth. The bill, which is sitting in a House committee, would override what Austin voters just approved and prevent civilian agencies, such as Austin’s Office of Police Oversight, from participating in any investigations of police misconduct.
Mayor Kirk Watson said in a statement that the bill would affect provisions just approved by voters. Additionally, there is a provision in Proposition A that prohibits a contract unless the police association agrees to everything in the proposition, which is unlikely, and could lead to less police oversight than the city had under both the expired contract and the proposed four-year contract.
“This deeply felt conversation about public safety and policing in our community has raised a lot of challenging questions and absolutely no easy answers,” Watson said. “But we’ll keep talking in the hope of finding some common-sense solutions that serve all our community.”
The Austin Police Association said in a tweet that it was determining its next steps but “will not stand by while this city and anti-police activists operate with blatant disregard for state law and the rights and protections afforded to our hardworking men and women.”
The association said that it will continue to prioritize negotiating a long-term contract but would not be forced back to the table “under a structure in which a new city ordinance attempts to unlawfully interfere with the statutory rights associated with the meet and confer process.”
“We look forward to finding these answers so that we can get back under a long-term contract that allows for our police department to recruit, hire and retain the best and brightest people who wish to serve this community in a law enforcement capacity,” the group said.
Regardless, Harris said the group was feeling good about Proposition A's win, and while he does not have a sense of how the bill will play out, said it was bigger than Austin.
"We are seeing people from Fort Worth and San Antonio, and other communities, united against this bill,” Harris said, “and we hope together we can stop it.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Election results: Proposition A earns victory in Austin; Prop B rejected
