Four members of the Austin City Council during a meeting today called on Police Chief Brian Manley to resign or said they had lost confidence in him, following a week of protests demanding police reform.
Thousands of demonstrators over the past week have called for racial justice and an end to police brutality like the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. A vocal and sometimes violent minority of protesters also have been demanding that police powers be curtailed and funding to the police be cut off.
Council Members are under pressure from activists who spoke for hours by video link Thursday, voicing outraged over police actions during the recent protests, including the use of tear gas and rubber bullets and bean-bag rounds, which seriously injured several people.
Council Member Greg Casar criticized the police department’s response to the protests, saying, “I believe the honorable thing for you to do is to resign the position of chief.” Mayor Pro Tem Delia Garza agreed, saying, “I don’t know how we move past this without a change.”
Council Member Jimmy Flannigan said that Manley should work on police reform in a different role, and Council Member “Pio” Renteria said he had lost confidence in Manley, without yet directly asking for his resignation. “I want to have confidence in my chief,” he said. “And if you can’t, I’m just going to have to… ask that you honorably resign.”
But Renteria also voted in favor of accepting a new state grant to help prevent car theft, and providing matching city funding, saying, “We are constantly in D3, every week we’re getting reports of cars getting stolen. I had a teacher across the street who got her car stolen.”
Renteria said it would be “crazy” to defund the police department, as some are advocating. The Council approved the grant with four members voting against: Casar, Garza, Natasha Harper-Madison, and Flannigan.
In response to criticism, Manley has said that Austin Police would no longer use bean bag round and other so-called “less lethal” ammunition for crowd control.
The City Council can’t fire Manley because it is forbidden by the city charter from interfering in personnel matters. But the City Manager, which reports to Council, can do so. He voiced support for Manley in a statement Wednesday saying, that the police chief is “committed” to rebuilding trust between police and citizens and “ensuring it is reflective of the community values Austin holds dear.”
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