Tagged: apd

The University of Texas has a new police chief. It’s David Carter, who is currently Chief of Staff at the Austin Police Department.

UT criminal justice professor Mike Lauderdale led the search committee for the new chief, and recommended the appointment to UT Austin President Bill Powers, who made the final decision.

Lauderdale says one of Carter’s major challenges will be dealing with high turnover at the department.

An Austin Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty was honored Monday in the Texas House of Representatives. Jaime Padron was shot to death in April 2012 when he responded to a disturbance call at a Walmart on I-35 near Parmer Lane.

State Representative Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, filed House Concurrent Resolution 85. It was passed unanimously after a ceremony at the Capitol to honor all 25 Texas police officers killed in the last two years. 

Austin police are hosting a "community walk" Saturday through an area of the city infamous for its open-air drug market. APD has targeted the area of 12th and Chicon Streets since last year with a so-called Drug Market Intervention program modeled after an effort in High Point, North Carolina.  

The program allows non-violent drug dealers to have their criminal cases suspended if they agree to work with family members or community groups to receive drug treatment and job training. The program got up and running last year after local law enforcement saw it had been used across the country with impressive results, the Austin Chronicle reported in an extensive piece last July. 

Update: Austin Police have identified the man killed by police last night as 54-year-old Herbert Babelay.

Original Story (April 24, 8:23 a.m.): Four Austin Police Officers involved in a fatal shooting last night are on paid administrative leave. The officers shot and killed a man who they say pointed a rifle at them.

It happened in southeast Austin – in the 700 block of Valdez. Police were called to that address at 8:40 p.m. on a report of a homicidal or suicidal man.

The Austin Police Chief is ordering  officers to stop getting warrantless blood draws from drunk driving suspects. The policy change comes after a ruling Wednesday from the U.S. Supreme Court that police in most cases must try to obtain a search warrant from a judge before ordering blood tests.

Texas Law allows a warrantless blood draws in certain cases, but Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo is calling on his officers to stop doing that, at least for the time being.