Suspicious activity reporting drops in Texas for 2nd year

AUSTIN (KXAN) — In the wake of mass shootings in recent years, Texas’ highest leaders have touted iWatchTexas as a critical statewide tool for reporting suspicious activity, alerting law enforcement to potential violence. Despite promotional efforts, total annual reports have dwindled for the past two years, according to records obtained by KXAN.

KXAN revisited the usage of iWatch following the Dec. 5 killing spree that left six dead in Austin and San Antonio. The suspected shooter, 34-year-old Shane James, was known to law enforcement in San Antonio. He had mental health crisis interactions with police, cut off an ankle monitor and had active warrants for family violence, court documents said. Yet, it remains unclear if James was on the radar of intelligence analysts that monitor suspicious activity reports.

The Texas Suspicious Activity Reporting Network is a statewide hub for receiving, analyzing and responding to reports of terrorism, school safety and other crime issues, according to DPS.

Reports submitted to the network are filtered through more than a half dozen fusion centers, which house multiple levels of local, state and federal law enforcement. The state uses iWatchTexas as its primary tool for submitting reports to the Suspicious Activity Reporting Network. Texas released iWatch in 2013.

Police believe James first killed his parent in their San Antonio home. He later drove to Northeast Early College High School in Austin, where he shot and injured a school district police officer on the morning of Dec. 5, according to an arrest affidavit.

James fled the school after shooting the officer, according to police. No students were harmed, but the incident put parents and the district on high alert. Texas has endured some of the deadliest school shootings in American history. In 2018, a shooter killed 8 students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School. Four years later, in May 2022, a man gunned down 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School.

Throughout the day, James is accused of shooting six more people, killing four, in what appears to be a random rampage. The other two victims, including an Austin police officer, survived.

“Obviously, now we know he was a very serious threat and was involved in a number of incidents that nobody knew at the time,” said Michael Bullock with the Austin Police Association. “And the officers involved in this particular call, they had no idea.”

EXPLORE – KXAN reporting on the Uvalde mass shooting

The Uvalde tragedy prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to push state education officials to promote iWatch and use other safety systems to prevent future school shootings. In June 2022, Abbott sent a letter to the heads of DPS, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and Texas Education Agency (TEA) directing them to expand the use of iWatch and make it more “widely known and easily accessible.”

“Reporting concerning behavior is a key component of intervention strategies to keep schools safe, and it is only through our joint efforts that we will succeed,” Abbott said in the letter.

The state even employed famed action star Chuck Norris to publicize the iWatch system.

Education officials respond

This month, KXAN asked THECB and TEA how they’ve acted on Abbott’s call from 18 months ago to promote iWatch.

THECB said it had “issued a memo to institutional leaders across Texas encouraging incorporation of the iWatch tool into their existing campus safety and security plans. Since that time, the agency has engaged with institutional leaders regarding the importance of the Department of Public Safety managed tool as part of Texas’ overall strategy,” according to an emailed statement.

THECB did not respond to follow-up questions from KXAN asking for a copy of the memo, and the agency’s spokesperson did not provide examples of how THECB has engaged with “institutional leaders” or whether the agency tracks or monitors its progress.

TEA said it sent this memo to school district leaders and staff in August 2022. TEA also said it has engaged with DPS to identify avenues to inform schools about iWatch. In addition, TEA said it promoted the program during visits to Education Service Centers.

It is important to note, TEA said, many school systems already have “robust incident notification systems.”

TEA also didn’t respond to KXAN’s questions about whether it has tracked its effort to promote iWatch.

iWatch publicized, impact unclear

In 2021, Texas saw a peak of nearly 7,700 total reports to the state’s Suspicious Activity Reporting Network. Submissions have ebbed since then, falling to about 5,400 in 2022 and just under 4,000 this year through November, according to records from DPS.

A silver lining for state officials: reports specifically related to school safety have steadily grown over the past five years. There were 728 school-related reports through November this year, compared to 554 last year and 290 the year before. There were 73 in 2018, the year the mobile app was launched.

“I think that this data, potentially, is indicative of the messaging, the consistent messaging that has been pushed nationally and in our state: If you see something, say something,” said Kathy Martinez-Prather, director of the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University. “That’s a good thing.”

Martinez-Prather said it takes time to create a culture of vigilance. She cautioned that the number of tips alone doesn’t provide the context of how many resulted in an arrest.

“One of the most important things that we’re trying to push is that districts don’t become complacent,” said Martinez-Prather. “But, it’s also something districts can’t do alone. This requires communities getting involved and speaking up as well.”

Last year, DPS told KXAN it “does not track” the number of suspicious activity reports that lead to an arrest. KXAN requested information to see if that’s still the case, and we are waiting to hear back.

Circle of referrals

To understand if James was ever flagged in a suspicious activity report – and if something could have been done before this month’s deadly shooting spree – KXAN reached out to several levels of law enforcement. Each office referred our questions to another agency, ultimately providing no answers.

In an initial response to KXAN’s questions, a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said they were “not aware of what iWatch reports are.” In a later email, BSCO recommended contacting the San Antonio Police Department, which manages the Southwest Fusion Center where the reports would be handled.

The Austin Police Department didn’t respond to specific questions about James being reported to the suspicious activity network. San Antonio police, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred our questions to DPS.

DPS, in turn, referred KXAN “back to the investigating agencies for any questions.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.