Austin Police Will Help Unveil Policing Equity Report Showing Wide Range Of Law Enforcement Data

AUSTIN, TX -- The Austin Police Department will join officials of the Center for Policing Equity in discussing the latter's Policing Equity Report on Wednesday.

Officials said the APD was selected by the Center for Policing Equity, a New York-based think tank, for this "...first of its kind collaboration as a result of the department's commitment to transparency and its leading role in the White House Police Data Initiative."

In July, the Center for Policing Equity unveiled a report that supported the belief that police are more likely to use force on blacks. The study of thousands of use-of-force episodes from police departments nationwide found that African Americans are more likely than whites and other groups to be victims of police use of force, even when racial disparities in crime are considered, the New York Times reported.

The report took three years to assemble.

The launch of the Science of Policing Equity report locally is scheduled to take place Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. at the Compstat room inside APD headquarters at 715 E. 8th St.

Scheduled speakers include Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo and Phillip Atiba Goff, president and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity.

Acevedo has gained some measure of national prominence after intermittent visits to Washington, D.C. at President Barack Obama's invitation. Earlier this month, he met with the president and law enforcement and community officials from across the nation at a White House to discuss criminal justice reform.

Among the groups represented at the most recent meeting were the NAACP, National Sheriff's Association and teh American Civil Liberties Union.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security named Acevedo to an advisory group assembled to review the use-for-profit contracts in the detention of unauthorized immigrants. His appointment comes ahead of a U.S. Department of Justice announcement that it would phase our private prison contracts for companies that run the for-profit detention centers.

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