Top Cop Job Finalist, Manley Stages Public Forum Monday, May 7

AUSTIN, TX — The public is invited to attend a Monday night forum to listen to interim Police Chief Brian Manley speak as well as share their thoughts on whether they support naming him permanent chief.

Manley has been serving as interim police chief since November 2016 when former chief Art Acevedo accepted the top cop job in Houston. Manley is scheduled to give a talk at tonight's forum as well as listen to questions and comments from attendees.

Tonight's forum is the first of two scheduled, Monday's taking place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, 7201 Colony Loop Dr., in Austin. The second forum will be staged from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. May 17 at KLRU Studio, 2504 Whitis Ave. B, Austin.

Those unable to attend are able to submit questions, concerns or other feedback in a number of other ways:

• Online at www.speakupaustin.org/OurNextChief.

• Texting by sending the word “Chief” to 512-580-8850.

• Via email at OurNextChief@austintexas.gov.

• By phone, dialing 311 (there will be language services available).

Manley has gotten high marks during his interim role, particularly during the Austin serial bombings ordeal in March, during which he proved to be a calm, reassuring presence at press conferences while offering safety tips to the public. A serial bomber who mailed explosive devices disguised as benign packages — killing two and injuring others — threw the city into panic until he ended up killing himself while police closed in.

But during the same period of time, Manley garnered the most strident critiques of his leadership style by speaking of the dead bomber in tones many interpreted as empathetic of the 23-year-old bomber. After listening to an audio recording left behind by the bomber, on which he described challenges he had faced in his young life, Manley spoke of him not as a domestic terrorist but as a troubled and frustrated young man who was challenged by life. Making matters worse, the chief agreed with a preliminary assessment later proved spectacularly erroneous that the first bombing killing an African American man likely was self-inflicted or related to neighborhood drug dealing. Manley later apologized on both fronts.

Also under his tenure, incidences of officer-involved shootings in Austin haven't shown any signs of slowing down in a city where many view police as too trigger-happy. At least four officer-involved shootings were logged by mid-March of this year alone — including two in less than a week. The continued level of such incidents has come despite a Manley-led effort at deescalating police confrontations through less-than-lethal means. The new policy came by virtue of a revamped edition of the 755-page Austin Police Department General Orders, containing new requirements for officers to compel them to first attempt to tamp down volatile situations before using their police-issued weapons — guns, batons, Tasers and the like.

The Austin Police Department have long been the target of citizens' complaints for perceived excesses in the use of force. On May 31, 2007, the Austin chapter of the NAACP and Texas Civil Rights Project filed a complaint against APD with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging systemic police misconduct. In a span of a five-year period between 1999 and 2003, the complainants argued, 11 people died in police encounters locally. Of those killed, only one was Caucasian while the others were either Hispanic or black. As result, the DOJ later made 160 recommendations to improve the police department's policies and procedures, most of which were implemented by APD during the investigation period.

>>> Photo of Interim Chief Brian Manley via Austin Police Department