The City of Austin has been notified by the U.S. Department of Justice of its plans to review the policies, procedures and practices of the Austin Police Department. The DOJ review could begin as early as the next 30 to 60 days. The primary focus will be APD’s use of force.

City Manager Toby Hammett Futrell said the City of Austin and the Austin Police Department will cooperate fully throughout the course of the review.

On June 19, 2004, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project, filed a 16-page complaint with the Department of Justice against APD and the City of Austin alleging that Austin’s African American and Hispanic residents disproportionately met with excessive force and abuse of search powers through consent searches. The NAACP complaint came on the heels of a use of force newspaper series and a succession of critical police incidents that raised community concerns about race relations.

In February 2005, the NAACP supplemented its DOJ complaint with information concerning the use of racially charged language by 10 police officers and employees during a fire at the Midtown Live Nightclub in Northeast Austin. This highly charged incident attracted national attention.