Austin Council Names Brian Manley Permanent Police Chief

AUSTIN, TX — Austin City Council members on Thursday unanimously approved the naming of Brian Manley as permanent police chief — the first time in nearly 40 years an officer from the rank-and-file has been promoted as the municipality's top law enforcement officer.

The appointment during council's regular meeting comes after 18 months of Manley serving as interim police chief following the November 2016 departure of his predecessor, Art Acevedo, who accepted the chief's position in Houston. The move also comes after City Manager Spencer Cronk named Manley the sole candidate for the chief's post in April.

Looming large as an appealing personal dynamic was Manley's deep community roots. Manley has worked in the community for 30 years as he climbed the ranks of the department, yielding an institutional knowledge about the city several on the dais voiced as a strong personal attribute.

In his new role, Manley oversees a department of more than 2,600 employees with an annual budget of $422 million.

In his quest for the job, Manley previously took the initiative to host community forums during which members of the public were free to air concerns and ask questions. The forums ingratiated him with more skeptical members of the community who wondered if he was the right man for the job. During the pair of gatherings, Manley proved his mettle in articulating his sincerity in listening to community concerns and allowing such insight to inform his leadership.

The exchanges weren't always pretty, but Manley articulately addressed criticisms with grace and deference while steeling himself for inevitable critiques from some in attendance. The serial bombings that terrorized the city in March gave many their first glimpse at Manley's grace under pressure as he took center stage in updating the community on the status of the investigation and its aftermath.

But it was during that same ordeal when some some figurative cracks in the armor emerged. Manley was roundly criticized for speaking in empathetic terms of the bomber, a man in his 20s who ended up blowing himself up with one of the same homemade weapons with which he had terrorized the city in a three-week span of terror. Ultimately, two people would die in the attacks, and another five sustained serious injuries.

Addressing an audio tape the bomber left behind, Manley at the time described the bomber as a frustrated young man, vaguely alluding to a litany of challenges he had faced in his young life. By contrast, he theorized that the first bombing on March 2 that killed an African American man may have been related to a previous police drug bust that had occurred on the same block. The juxtaposition of those inadvertent racial undertones in describing each scenario raised the ire of minorities in the community, calling Manley's cultural awareness into question at best and cultural tone deafness at worst.

Indirectly referencing such concerns, Manley voiced his support for community policing. The Austin Police Department often touts its efforts in this area, noting how each police academy class is dispatched to various parts of the city to visit myriad cultural pockets as part of their pre-graduation requirements.

Some members of the community also voiced concern over the level of officer-involved shootings in the city, including one last week during which a Hispanic woman in her 20s clutching a knife was shot dead by an officer after she ignored commands to drop the weapon. To this, Manley said ongoing, bolstered training continues for officers in dealing with suspects bearing non-lethal weapons or who might be in the throes of a mental crisis. In the early part of the year, Manley directed changes to protocol in dealing with such suspects aimed at de-escalation, but many wonder if those changes have taken hold in some officers and whether the officer-involved shootings — five of which have occurred this year alone — are reflective of a departmental culture marked by police overreach.

Despite such lingering concerns, council members took turns in praising Manley's leadership over the years — particularly during his protracted stint as interim chief. Never shy to point out racial and ethnic inequities — a penchant that has made her something of a champion for the working class — council member Delia Garza, a former firefighter, was among those praising Manley's leadership.

“While many watched the news safely from home, but on edge, the men and women of law enforcement ran to the bombs and explosions,” she wrote on a council bulletin board message urging her colleagues to join her in naming Manley permanent chief.

After his official appointment as chief of police, Manley noted he had heard and assimilated such concerns. He vowed to give his all through the power of his drive and commitment to the city, thanking members of his department and family in the audience for their support. The normally steely Manley noted how he almost choked up in thanking his mother who was in the audience before thanking his wife and son who were also in attendance as well as his daughter, who was in college and unable to attend.

"It’s not lost on me, also, that this is the first time as a community that we have appointed a police chief from within the department in almost four decades," Manley said in remarks after the council vote was taken in sealing his appointment. "And that, too, adds a sense of responsibility on top of everything else."

From Houston, Acevedo added his voice to the subsequent notes of congratulations at the appointment of his erstwhile right-hand man in Austin. "Here's to the future, my friend," Acevedo wrote in a tweet. "Your work and personal ethics is a point of pride for all who know you and work with you. The work is never finished."

>>> Photo of Brian Manley courtesy of City of Austin