Public safety committee to discuss ways to implement council’s police reform, racial justice resolutions

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Thursday’s Public Safety Committee meeting is a key component in addressing the tough issues and moving ahead with action, says Austin City Council member Jimmy Flannigan.​

“Committee work is important because that is the place the staff can come back and say look here is what it says in the resolution, but we are running into a problem,” Flannigan said. “What was the council’s intent? How would the council like to see us move forward? Or adjust or tweak.”​

Last week the council, as well as Mayor Steve Adler, unanimously voted for a number of resolutions addressing police reform and racial justice, but Flannigan said now there has to be action.

“It didn’t actually do anything,” Flannigan said. “All it really said to the manager was we are serious about big structural change. This is the kind of stuff we want to see, now get to work.”​

Councilmember Leslie Pool weighed in on this month’s violent interactions between protesters and police that left some injured.

“It was unprecedented and frankly the outcomes were unconscionable and so we are all responding to that and working with the community to find our way forward,” Pool said.

What can we expect to hear in Thursday’s meeting?

“What steps they are going to take to implement the very long list of policies and objectives that the council approved last week,” Flannigan said. ​”We heard, we know what we need to do and now its time for the council to get it done.”

The public safety committee is the only committee tasked to oversee and push for implementation of these council-approved reforms.

It may also be brought up to the public safety commission, but the next stop will most likely be budget adoption in August.

The meeting starts at 1 p.m. and will be streamed live.