Public Safety Committee Meeting Transcript – 03/10/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 3/10/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/10/2021 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [3:33:30 PM] . Good afternoon, vice chair, you caught me off guard. I was looking away. >> You thought someone was talking to you through the wall or something? >> All right. So we have three of us, I believe that's a quorum. All right. So good afternoon, everybody. I am mayor, mayor pro tem Natasha harper-madison and we are going to call to order the public safety committee meeting, our regular meeting. Today is the 10th of March, forgive me for the beeping, stayed the 10th of March, we are meeting virtually due to current stay-at-home orders. Forgive me. And the time is 3:34 P.M. And it looks like we have three briefings before us today. Give me just a moment, I am going mute myself, you guys and turn off this beeping [3:35:09 PM] . Thank you for your patience. It is times like these where I can't figure out thousand make my computer not beep at me. That remind me I am not quite as young as I like to think I am, so it looks like we have a few items before us today and they include taking the opportunity to approve the meeting minutes from our last meeting and we have three briefings. We have some discussion -- all right. Give me just a moment . Okay. So let's get into it. [3:36:12 PM] Now, I am going to call the meeting order at 3:36 P.M. So, yes, we need to approve the meeting minutes from November 16. Do we have a motion to approve the meeting minutes? Motion by councilmember Kelly to approve the meeting minutes from November 6 the teen, seconded by councilmember Casar. Can we take a vote on that item? It appears as though we are unanimous with the approval of the meeting minutes for November 16 with the exception of the mayor, who has not joined us yet. Moving right along. Okay. So we have briefing and discussion on reimagining public safety initiatives, decoupling activities and reinvestment opportunities. Then that will be followed by a briefing and discussion on the [3:37:13 PM] us a police department's Austin regional intelligence center also known as Aric and the briefing and discussion on the Austin area wildfire hub in response to the wildfire preparedness audit report, 2019, in this case, let me check in with city hall. Are we prepared for our first briefing? >> Yes, we are prepared. >> Thank you very much, I appreciate it. You go ahead and call it up. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. I am going to kick us off as city hall gets our slides. Thank you so much. My name is far I can't Rivera -- and I a testimony deputy city manager and so pleased to be before you to sort of give an update on where we are on our reimagining public safety activities as well as a brief update on some of the reinvestment activities and a little nod to where we are with the task force. So if we go to the next slide. [3:38:15 PM] I will try to kick it off but there are people behind me as you see in the room that are actually doing work so I will high level speak to some of the work we have already done and some that is in flight. As per the budget amendments and instruction that council gave to us in August of last year, we have started the process of decoupling, right, of looking at areas within the Austin police department that could perhaps be stood alone or be serviced by other departments and so as you all know we had started the move for support services in the fall hr and Pio had already begun and were assumed within our corporate hr and Pio. I will note that under review are, or in progress are finance and building services but those are two in progress and we will be reporting on that in some point in the future. Our special events, we had [3:39:17 PM] administrative personnel shift over to dsd in fall of 2020 as well. Our sworn personnel had already been reassigned to emergency management type duties in the face of pandemic and why we will always need sworn to be involved in some of the special events permit review and some events as events emerge in the future which -- with the vaccinations I think we are all excited about events emerging in the future. But those personnel will not necessarily be dedicated to just permits and special events, but will be reassign as APD leadership requires. The forensic science bureau as many of you know we came before council and you approved standing that as its own department, and so that alliance with some previous reports that had been asking to establish an independent DNA lab in the past so really happy to have that moving forward, that approved and staff continues to work on [3:40:18 PM] the next steps for that. We had as part of the decoupling you asked us to take a look at some of the communications but in particular the 911 call center. In the advent of the storm and some of the recovery efforts many of the folks that are working on rps are also in the midst, responding to some of the emergency crisis and then subsequent recovery activity so we had some meetings lined up with 911 staff. We will pick those up again and I believe those are scheduled and so I hope to come to you soon with some thoughts about the next steps there, but really need speak to APD staff to better understand some of the alignments and some of the adjacencies with some of those programmings. There are some other issues we have been talking through with victim services and internal affairs and as I mentioned support services we had talked about, there are others that are kind of a little bit further down the pike and we will [3:41:18 PM] continue to update council as that moves forward, have not yet taken a deep dive into strategic support, community partnerships or the special investigations unit but that is next on our horizon as we move forward. Just a reminder too, and I know we have faced these questions from our task force as well as other folks in the community, what we are doing as we proceed with decoupling we are looking at areas which perhaps could be either done by others or stood on their own, is really thinking through administrative aspects of it but as we have shared with pokes there will be continued conversations about perhaps how the services are offered and there will be opportunities for community or the task force to continue to give us information as we delve into business process improvements along those natures. Next slide. We have several upcoming meetings with the task force that work continues to flow. It is a large volume of work and [3:42:20 PM] I certainly appreciate staff who has been a part of it and the reimagining public safety leadership team as we have done it but really importantly appreciate the time and the work and the commitment that our community members on the task force have put in as we move forward. You will see there we have several I believe it is nine working groups established as indicated in a previous memo to you we will be coming back to council on August 20th to talk through both our -- your request to see staff and do kind of a midyear check-in but that was also asked by the task forced a some additional time for community engagement to make sure that their recommendations could move forward as well. Certainly they were feeling some pinch of time basis moved that forward, but frankly the storm and the recovery efforts were everybody, not just staff but it seems like the entire community was helping each other out, has [3:43:21 PM] pushed some of those out so we appreciate your grace in allowing us to come back on April 20th so we will be talking through some of those recommendations and you will be hearing from the chairs of the task force directly. We have got several upcoming meetings as you know our meetings are public and so anyone who wants to tune in can see that schedule there. We actually have one this very evening after this meeting and we have a community listening session as well on Saturday, April 4th. So again, very high level update just on where staff is, we are picking up those efforts post storm but in the meantime there has been some tremendous work done by staff, particularly on the reinvestment portion of that and I am going pass the baton to Austin public health and assistant director Adrian stirrup to get us kick started there. >> Next slide. All right. Good afternoon. Thank you. [3:44:23 PM] Adrian sir, one of the direct of Austin public health to talk very high level about the reinvestments, so the family violence shelter and protection services that was a public budget allocation of 2.1 million that rfa is out on the street. The application process will close on the 23rd of this month and we are hoping to have a contract in place by mid may, 6.5 was allocated for permanent supportive housing and services and we are, in this first year, allocating that for support of the hotel strategy and of the mainstream voucher program to couple the supportive services that need to go with those housing vouchers. Office of violence prevention was 1.8 million, roughly, about 1.2 of that is for reinvestment in community. So on the staffing side we are [3:45:24 PM] recruiting for the lead position. That posting actually closes tomorrow. We have been meeting with national leaders in this space to help us plan around the setup of the office and to help us make sure we select the right individual to lead that work. On the reinvestment sign we are working on several pilot projects for this year. One has a focus on sex workers and then the other ones are trying to see where we can augment efforts currently being supported by the equity office reinvestment in public safety grant process, and also some existing programs in the community so we can begin to really gather data and scaffold up what the office will look like in the sustainable future. For substance abuse, there was $1.1 million, excuse me, allocated to the budget, three [3:46:26 PM] agencies successfully completed the application process and those awards will be on the council agenda on March 25th for food access, it was $400,000 in funding. We are working with equi dot atx to set up a pilot program where they will retrofit a metro bus to provide grocery style services in the eastern crescent. Abortion access, 100,000 additional dollars were added to this year's budget and that contract is through -- due process and they will continue to provide logistical and support services for women considering their options when it comes to their pregnancy. Next slide, please. Exdad equidad .. So request the pod of funds at 1.125 that was [3:47:26 PM] targeted as the reinvestment in public safety, there were two categories that were pointed out. One was mental health services and the other was immigrant legal services, and so for this first year we decided to add money to our existing mental health contracts with some of that money. The other thing was to beef up the contracts we have with American gateway who has been doing good work with deportation assistance and also with catholic charities who has been doing great work on behalf of the city providing all types of legal services. There will be a competitive solicitation for the bulk of the money. We are looking at beefing up some existing partnerships in community as well around domestic violence, youth violence prevention and [3:48:28 PM] African-American mental health specifically targeting youth. And all of that is around the strategy about how can we get to this public health approach to prevent those populations from entering into the criminal justice system unnecessarily. As far as our epi and disease surveillance program we gave the epi positions to the department and that increases our capacity for not just covid-19 but other reportable conditions and it has also improved our epi response and you can see the stat there about how many epis a good public health department needs per 100,000 of the population. Early childhood has been a focus for the city for a long time and with these -- this funding we were able to make the coordinator position, move it from a temp to a full-time fte and during the covid response that person has been working [3:49:29 PM] within the social service branch of the eoc to support not only childcare in schools but families and figuring out what education looks like during this time, but -- and the bulk of this person's work is really focused on achieving those out comes that were identified in sd 2023. And last but definitely not least, as part of the reinvestments we were able to increase the workforce first program and so that contract now totals about $1.2 million and it supports four work crews five days a week working in coordination with parks, watershed and arr not only providing a valuable service to our community but also supporting persons experiencing homelessness. I believe those are all of my comments and if there are any questions now or at the end, I am available. [3:50:32 PM] >> Thank you very much. I think we will hold our questions to the end, unless of course deputy city manager and Adrian, unless of course that was the end of the presentation. >> It is not, mayor pro tem, so question will continue if we do, two to the next slide we have a rolling group here of really talented folks to add more to the slide deck. So, Brian. >> Hi, everyone. Brian oaks chief equity officer for the city of Austin. So the equity office will side with $400,000 as part of the reentry services for formerly incarcerated population. And we are moving forward with the process to do an rfp for these services. One of the unique things we have done with this opportunity that we quickly realized that none of our staff has experience with being incarcerated. [3:51:32 PM] So we put in place a community engagement process that we started back in this December and that community engagement process is actually being formed -- being sort of actually performed by people who have been previously incarcerated. They are leading a series of focus groups with people who have been previously incarcerated to get a better understanding of what are the challenges and issues people face when they reenter into our community. They also are doing focus groups with family members and loved ones of people who have been previously incarcerated, the -- plays a big role in reentry so we are better trying to understand what those experiences are and what those chance are. It was setback by the focus, by the winter storm and that needed to be rescheduled but once we sort of gather that information we are going to start projecting the launch of the rfga in may of [3:52:35 PM] this year. And just Sonia some insight also, in terms of how we sort of structure the requests for grant process, we want to sort of pull in some of the same sort of strategies that we are doing with our equity mini grant program, which is through this ram we would actually hope and want to try to incentivize organizations that are being led by people who have been previously incarcerated to really apply and hopefully be successful in securing some of this funding so. We would be looking to do things like lower liability limits when appropriate and necessary. Also looking at options for shorter or more simple contracting options as well as application to apply for funding as well, and then also the consideration of how we may have a higher percentage of funds available on the front end of being awarded a project as opposed to our traditional fee for service approach that we do [3:53:36 PM] request a lot of community based programs. And next slide. >> We will pass that over to assistant chief gay. >> Thank you, Brian, thank you, Marie. Chief gay with the Austin police department, excited to be here today and councilmembers to report on APD's reinvestment activities. We reinvested about 500,000, happy to report that that included 4 ftes for victim services, one supervisor and three counselors, those positions have been filled so that is a great for victim services. Also we were able to use about 30,000 to provide stipends to our graduate students for both Texas state and university of Texas. We actually were able to get seven students for the spring semester and they will be our first recipients of a $2,500 [3:54:37 PM] stipend. We do anticipate we will have some graduate students for this summer as well. Also invested 50,000 into emergency assistance for victims of crimes. We have been using those funds or food and for clothing for our victims, so that has been very useful so we appreciate that. The next is the target and training for trauma informed responses. This is really an investment of about 50,000 for emdr. This is where we are training local clinicians in the area that are trained with the ndr. Because of the training that they will received is -- receive they do 50 pro Bono counseling sessions with victims of crimes in our area. This is both for sexual assault [3:55:38 PM] victims as well as other vine crimes. We currently have a about 110 counselors in the area that are doing pro Bono work. Some of them have actually decided to stay on beyond their commitments and with this 50,000 we will have about at 45 to 50 additional counselors in the area. >> And regarding the unconscious bias and racial and cultural sensitivity. This is really our work with the equity office. The two reports from Ms. James as well as the equity assessment that was recently released. We are using that as a baseline a and hopefully we will bring a contract to council asking for a professional services contract for three to five years to offer training to our leadership team as well as to all of our employees in this Arya. So very excited to bring that [3:56:40 PM] forward here in the next few weeks to council for approval. The last is the naah locks son, we already purchased this for all of our department or officers for us to carry. We are working on a training to push out to all of our officers. We will anticipate that will be finalized and our officers will be carrying this tool within the next four weeks. So I am excited to report that. So thank you. I will pass it on now to I believe ems. Good afternoon F jasper brown, chief of staff with the Travis county ems, and also with me will be assistant chief Andy Hofmeister and -- go over a few bullet points. In August, council invested in our covid-19 resources and [3:57:40 PM] additional resources for 911 response. There were two ambulances added to the system, one was added in March -- or October 2020 and we just started the second ambulance in March here yesterday, went online, full duty, it was delayed a little bit because of the ice storm but it is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as of yesterday and so next slide for chief Hofmeister. >> Thank you. Andy Hofmeister assistant chief of E in. S, in the last budget. This year's budget there was investment in the community paramedics program and the intent was to deploy them to begin being responsive to this mountain of crisis calls that are coming through 911. We are deploying 2 chp -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, [3:58:42 PM] those that are going to be assigned have already completed over 40 hours of mental health training, collaboratively provided and have done rotations with some of their specialized programs within their organization and we have identified the additional two members that will be oncoming when they -- when those positions are funded either midyear or later. And based on staffing levels we will bring them over and get them out on the streets as well. >> An update on et 3 project, the emergency triage treatment and transport. It was originally schedule, slated, scheduled to start in 2020 and delayed due to covid, the program began January 1st, 2021. We do have our participation agreement completed with the CMS, which is the center for [3:59:45 PM] medicaid and medicare. They have approved the plan. We have -- we have a partner agreement with wellmed and they have about 17 alternate destination sites and we are completing some of our other participation agreements that will be needed for alternate transport. We are also testing some telehealth resources into the field and actually can did quite a few of that during the ice storm when we had our 0 consult line with paramedics that were dealing with covid originally they began to take calls in telehealth along with the medical directors and were able to keep people at home instead of transporting them so we started the telehealth actually during the ice storm and we will continue to expand upon that. Next slide. Also in this budget there was an investment made for mental health resources. [4:00:48 PM] This particular program is a partnership between the city and -- integral pair to roll this resource out, to work with -- it is coming online. Host is working with the team and team members that are on board. They have identified five clients that they are already working with and three three-team members already on board and actively working in the streets and working with the host team -- and remaining positions and so with that, coming on board host is working hand in hand with the new resources, and familiarizing them with the process and the system and actually helping getting out in the streets and working with some -- so with that resource that is what has been provided so far. [4:01:51 PM] >> -- Downtown community -- good afternoon, and just want to give a brief update regarding the -- em cot contract, which is the -- can I get you to hold just one moment, please. There is some feedback if you are not speaking can you please mute your microphone. Thank you. This is with Austin integral care that has been ounce housed at the since fy-19. The new funding that was provided in fy-21 was an increase of $1.5 million which brings the total contract amount up to 3.2 million. The three main objectives during this budget period with the increased funding was to deploy iPads to provide telehealth appointments with the Austin [4:02:52 PM] police department officers and ems on-site with the behavior health specialists. On the pry, one of the primary goals of this additional funding was also to provide staffing 24/7 at the 911 call center to receive calls regarding individuals experiencing mental health you sister and APD or ems response and provide a response on-site with a behavioral health specialist. And then the last 'item of this additional funding was to provide full time access to a medical provider, including a psychiatric care provider to support expansion of services that are being provided both through the 911 call center as well as on-site emcot crew members. And with that I am going to turn it back over to chief Hofmeister for ems on the text slide. [4:03:57 PM] Thank you. Myself and -- Wagner from the mental health -- just to provide a brief update on the work that Ising that is being done to implement -- the report recommendations from 2019. If you remember that report, it came along on the heels of the city auditor's report. And in 2019, may of 2019, the mental institute provided six recommendations for us to look at and to implement. We brought the medicines back and kicked off this work in October of 2020. So just to go recommendation by recommendation, recommendation number one, stated that they recommended the advisory function should be developed within the behavioral health and criminal justice advisory council, to provide information and advice and some sort of [4:05:00 PM] oversight, to some extent the terms of how the police and others respond to criminal -- mental health crisis incidents. So we are happy to say that recommendation is complete, last month chief -- and his team were able to work with -- and they approved this particular function within their group so right now they are working on getting those reports quarterly and working on the format and some of the finalities there. Recommendation number 2 was made the recommendation there be additional mental health training for call takers in the 911 center and so currently what we are doing is the mental institute ask helping us identify best practices from across the country in this particular topic. There are very lobes that have [4:06:03 PM] or provide these type of trainings so it is not readily available to pick off a shelf but -- staff is working on developing and reaching out to different services or different locations that have training that may fill some of these gaps and we will bring it back and put it together and deploy training. Recommendation number 3 made recommendation that mental health clinicians be integrated into the 911 process and so as we worked with Robert Ingham, they brought on several clinicians and they are now, they have been working during the APD area of dispatch and -- the ems section of the communication center. Early last month APD launched what we are referring to is, as the fourth option so when someone calls 911 they will be [4:07:03 PM] asked whether they need police, fire, ems and now they will be asked if they need mental health services. APD has worked out and is working on the process and essentially what that does is that brings in the mental health resources as quickly as possible possible. And then will continue to recruit and fill the positions for the clinician in the center, if they are not able to staff 24/7 right now but we anticipate there will be -- 24 hours in that center by may 1st. Next slide, please. Recommendation number 4 spoke to the sustainability, in this particular discussion, rolling out telehealth and expanding capability to include APD and ems units. This is currently in progress, integral -- purchased a large number of iPads and those are [4:08:04 PM] currently being distributed the APD staff and there will be very short, very good training provided and we anticipate this resource will be up and running by the end of this month. Recommendation number 5 relates to developing a formal collaboration and process where APD crisis intervention officers and their team have connection to the ems community health paramedics so that appropriate cases can be referred over and worked with even the medics with the clinician we -- that is currently being memorialized and formal life through policy and .. Very close connections anyhow between these two teams but we are working on getting that formalized and seeing what we can do to enhance that particular referral stream and [4:09:05 PM] process. Recommendation number 6 relates to community outreach and working with none and other resources to get information out about mental health, crises, what an individual can do to prepare for situations like that, what is available in the community, what to expect if they have to engage the mental health services for a mental health crisis. It currently would be material and also looking at what population, what areas have already received that information through the medical reporting and other avenues. We are also looking at what media outlets can we utilize and social media, radio, television, what connections, what groups do we have in do we have relationships with, once we approve and we get all of the resources together and the materials that we can engage with the community. I believe that's last slide that [4:10:07 PM] I have -- updates I am happy to take any questions. >> I appreciate that. And just wanted to allow before we go to questions, mayor pro tem, to allow Ms. Wagner, if she had anything to add to that last presentation really about the meadows report and the great work she and her team did that but certainly we stand ready for additional questions after that and let us know -- I know we put this presentation as part of backup, let us know if you would like us to take it down so we can see each other more fully. Ms. Wagner. >> Sure. Thank you for having me today. I think chief Hofmeister covered it really well. This work took a lot of digging into when we first got started because as we all know, things around the world, and Austin are very different now than they were in 2019 so we wanted to make sure that we had high fidelity to these recommendations because the [4:11:08 PM] recommendations were created to address, so maintaining the fidelity to the recommendations while also addressing many of the changes that our community has seen since the report was issued was very important. For instance, on the last recommendation number 6 originally because we identified statistically significant increase in response to resistance and use of force instances and spanish- speaking communities where the poverty level was below 200 percent of the federal poverty level we had designed intimate but intensive community outreach events to take place at culturally relevant locations across those areas in person and we know now that is not an appropriate outreach activity, now in the city of Austin so we are reevaluating thousand make sure that educational material can get out to those communities that we can ensure officers who are working in those communities have the appropriate [4:12:08 PM] information, the name what to do kind of information that is all translated and distributed in a way that makes sense now in 2021. I will say that there has been a significant amount of national interest in this fourth option that was added to the 911 answering and also the unique way that we are implementing mental health triage and consultation in the call center. We are working to finish risk matrix call -- to determine when those calls can be transferred out of the public safety arena, but also looking to determine when and how to ensure a clinician is available for consultation and guidance on those calls that will still require some kind of public health, I'm sorry a public safety response, because we know that it is when those public safety responses happen that we often see tragedy and we want to be able to maximize the utilization of those clinicians to ensure consul at a if the activities are available to [4:13:08 PM] those responders to minimize or eliminate the risk of tragedy on those calls and there has been a significant amount of national interest in how Austin is weaving both of toes into the call center, triage, diversion and consultation all into one which is really taking hold now and we are making really great progress there as well. And as far as the training piece we know this have received mental health and first aid we know that is not sufficient to meet the need here but we don't want to replicate my type of training they already had so so we have identified some of the elements on mental health we don't want to repeat and now add on emergency mental health dispatch and resource training and in a more truncated fashion and again create penetrating not only for the dispatchers but for the clinicians that have the opportunity to be a person in the country's -- we will seek accreditation through. [4:14:11 PM] The control who go through the .. And I will son with people on a and liaison training for setting the state and national standard .. I am pleased with the progress we have recently be gown make on this progress and excited to continue to see it unfold and have our interim report due to the council at the end of April and I think you guys will be pleased to see the changes and the progress you are seeing as well. >> With that, mayor pro tem, committee members I know you have two other presentations, but know that staff stands at the ready for any questions on this presentation. >> Thank you very much, naria, I think we will offer the opportunity for folks to ask questions on this particular presentation. I need figure out my layout because I can only see three people but I know, that I know, okay, there it is. All right, colleagues, are there any questions? >> I have a question, mayor pro [4:15:12 PM] tem. >> I am sorry. Thank you for the presentation and all of the hard work done so far. II think our city is really a leader across the country this year in trying to make a committed commit investment committed investments that will make our community more safe and I appreciate what you have in that presentation and I just want to make sure that I -- that maybe you all can answer for me if any of these investments, if I don't have the timeline right but on housing for folks experiencing homelessness I know we have made some investments in the hotel advantage, there is still more investments to make. I think that that is where we stand with that. And maybe my question at the end of this is, let me know if I got any of this wrong from the presentation. But on housing folks, folks experiencing homelessness we started to make investment in the hotel strategy which you agreed to bring more to us on [4:16:14 PM] the mental health first responder program, you have established that mental health at 911 last month, but there is going to be continued investment and rollout in that program among staff and training and then on the civil rights office that I didn't see on the powerpoint, that I think was part of, this year's budget, that that was established last month. We passed the abortion access expansion. I think this month so I think that one is done. From the slides it looks like you already have expanded the job programs for workforce first. Let me know if there is still expansion to do or if that is complete. Family violence shelter you said is coming in may of 2021. And substance youth services immigrant perception and food access will come this month to council, the forensic services department being independent we did last month and it looks like you are saying support services and special events have been [4:17:14 PM] decoupled already to the extent that they are going to be, and this ten victim services professionals and resources it sounds like have all -- that's already complete and has been put into effect. Did I get any of that wrong? I just want, I I am trying to synthesize the timeline on the powerpoint you have given to us. >> Sure. Yes, I will say we are -- adding the civil rights office. Carol Johnson is our new civil rights director and excited for you all to get to know her as she has now joined us in the city and I will say that with regard to -- with regards to some of the on the under review portions which includes victim services we are certainly continuing to have that conversation as well as some other aspect that were asked to be decoupled and we -- have not quite finished but be bringing that forward with fuller recommendations in the near future. >> Sure. When I say services I guess I meant to chief gay's point to [4:18:15 PM] hiring the additional staff that is in the budget. Is that complete or still in the process? >> >> Of the new 4ftes have been hired. We do have some other vacancies in services but those have happened. >> Then on the ems, have we finished -- direct Sturrup -- whether or not the new investments in ems have all been completed and hired or if that is still in process. >> -- Started and the shierg in process. We started the units ahead of the hiring process, so will be hired and promotions will occur throughout the fiscal year. >> And just a small clarification on the workforce first. All of the -- fiscal year '21 [4:19:15 PM] has been added to that contract, so that process is complete. >> Great. And I just think that you know, we had so many people from across the community come together and push on the city council for all of us to work together to try to get a lot of these new programs off the ground and I think that this presentation really speaks to how quickly the city has moved to get a lot of this running across so opinion different programs, and so I really appreciate this update. >> Councilmember Kelly. >> Thank you very much. And thank you to all of the staff involved in lifting this heavy load of reimagining public safety. I know you all are working really hard to put the right programs in place to make it successful. I wanted to back up for a moment to assistant chief gay's presentation and briefly touch on the targeted training for trauma informed response that we heard about. Assistant chief gay mentioned [4:20:16 PM] emdr multiple times. I would like to clarify for those that might be watching who don't know what that means my understanding is emdr stands for eye movement descendsation and responsing it is a clinical tool that allows people from stress with traumatic memories or disturbing life experiences and really pleased to know this is an additional guy help victims of crimes and I am really thankful assistant chief day was able to talk with us today about reimagining public safety, it is going to be a really great asset for people that need it so thank you. >> Councilmember kitchen. I am sorry. >> No. I was just going to say thank you forgiving the definition of the program. I appreciate that. >> It is helpful. Thank you, councilmember Kelly. Councilmember kitchen and then councilmember alter. >> Yes. I just wanted to say thank you for this update. It is as councilmember Casar said, I have seen some significant progress and I appreciate the report on the [4:21:17 PM] efforts in the 911 call center, which actually was began last year, it was not a new program this year, but you made significant improvements which is what we talked about or expansion I should say, significant expansion this year and so I really appreciate the progress that has been made and appreciate the work that all of you are doing and working with Ms. Wagoner and ems, APD, it is truly a collaborative effort across several areas so I am excited about it and I appreciate that report and I am looking forward to the more detailed progress report, I think you said at the end of April or end of April. Thank you. Councilmember alter, and then councilmember kitchen. Thank you. You know, this is really exciting to see this you know, pull together and I think that [4:22:19 PM] as councilmember, the comments councilmember kitchen just said underscored this is work that has been going on well before August, well before June of last year. We have had conversations about the fourth part of the consult line, we had conversations about needing more host teams and conversations about increasing victim services. We made some decisions in the budget that allowed us to make some of these investments or accelerate the process, but these are things that have had a lot of thought and a lot of research behind them that we are finally able to move forward with and moving forward with a lot of them at once and I think that is exciting. I wanted to first just highlight two things that I thought were left off in terms of the reinvestments that I want to make sure are in there. We invested in the what is now [4:23:19 PM] called the rework now program from workforce solutions. I didn't see that. I think that was something like 1.9 million, I think we were calling it like work repay before or something like that, but this is a program from workforce solutions that is helping us to train people in traits like plumbing and other things that we really see that we need right now in our community and we have an opportunity in our upcoming discussions over the America recover funding to see about accelerating that type of program so I just want to say we should be adding that to our list and chief brown mentioned the pandemic consult lines, but we provided full funding for those consul lines in the budget as well out of the reinvestment and as chief brown mentioned that service was really critical during the storm and is critical to our efforts to provide [4:24:23 PM] healthcare moving forward so I think we have to you know, just keep in mind that there are some other things here. I wanted to ask, though, about the third bucket. So we had three buckets. We had the represent, decoupling and I am totally blanking out on what we called the third right now, but the stuff that was less clear sort of how we were going move forward, so I wanted to ask if you could speak to that and if you could also speak to the -- with a what -- the changes for internal affairs and then finally kind of a little bit Morton process of what will happen in April. >> Certainly, councilmember, that third was actually the reimagining bucket, if you will, and that is the bucket that we really have focused with the task force that included things like parks, it included things [4:25:24 PM] like training, it included a variety of items that certainly the task force is looking into Morton how service is delivered than the more add administrative what can be shifted but that is certainly work that will come forward we hope with some of the work group recommendations from the task force and we staffed it and wanted to get ahead of that because really that was the conversation we wanted to have in the community, to have with community. I would say that the other portion of that is that some of our engagement goes beyond the task force and we really want to make note we have undertaken efforts to really talk a bit more broadly with community, Alicia Dean on our team has been amazing in cpio, along with Kerry and alba from the innovation office, balance is now leading our resiliency office, serrano, they and Brian really help create a community dialogue community that was scenario based, not necessarily [4:26:25 PM] about argued pd but just any scenario where really as I have mentioned it a lot in our community conversations we ask community how do you want law enforcement to show up or not when you are in times of crisis? And we will be adding that to the discussion as we come forward with those recommendations. The task force has been meeting now for a while again those meetings are public, folks can certainly go see those. We have the meeting tonight. We will be focusing on one of the work groups, which is the community engagement piece. But we have other work groups coming down rooted in the task force meetings that have been making sure that we hear from folks that are -- that have been historically most impacted by police violence in their lives and so that Saturday session really is a listening session broad we are community and we will hear feedback then. The task force work groups will present some of the remaining recommendations to the task [4:27:26 PM] force of the body to vote on. I believe the tentative date for that is April 14th and and then we will bring that forward as part of our mid-year sort of follow-up that you had asked us for in the budget direction on April 20th. So that is how that is moving forward. On the other items that you asked about in terms of internal affairs, in particular, I'll say that we have been reviewing that. We have done a lot of research on that. We are certainly -- we are touching base with law because there are some sensitivities to thinking through a potential decoupling, but we will, as soon as we finish that and we may need to come into executive session but as we finish that and move that forward, we will certainly be coming to council to have a more thorough discussion but we are not finalized with that yet. [4:28:32 PM] >> Harper-madison: Council member Ellis, do I see your hand council member Ellis and council member tovo. >> Ellis: I wanted to make sure that conversation was finish. Can I hear more about how the E 3 model is working. Have you seen any early successes or is it still too early to tell how that is helping alleviate concerns about emergency rooms and where people are able to be transported to. >> I think it's too early to be able to give you an update on that. Some of the agreements just have been finalized and with the ice storm that delayed some of that process, although like I said, we did use the telehealth and our consult line along with chief medical officers department and clinicians to keep people at home, so there [4:29:32 PM] was a success story there in keeping people at home instead of having to transport for very low or minor emergencies that did not need an emergency response during the snow. >> Ellis: That's really helpful. I look forward to seeing how well that program does moving forward. And certainly appreciate the mention for the workforce first program. That's a program that started in district 8 before I was in office. I've been happy to lead on it, as have a lot of my colleagues, to support that program, but I think it's a great way to help people in need of employment to help in the city. So thanks a lot for that. >> Harper- madison: Council member tovo and then council member alter. >> Tovo: Thank you, staff, thank you for the good work, and also thank you to my colleagues for making the point that many of these programs and initiatives have been in conversation and some [4:30:33 PM] implemented prior to this last year. And I think it would help me -- this is a very helpful layout of information. It would help me to have some dollar amounts associated with these different programs so that we can really see what the investment has been program by program by program. I had some specific questions, one of them is -- well, a couple of questions. We've had different conversations around the hotel strategy and the origins of the money. Could you help me understand when it -- oh, I see. I did not print out that page. With regard to the support for hotel strategy and mainstream voucher program, it is my understanding that we're using bond funding for the purchase of the hotels and reinvested funding for the services. Is that still accurate or is it contemplated that we would, for additional hotel purchases we [4:31:33 PM] would go beyond the bond funding? >> So these dollars are not for the purchases of the hotels but for the staffing and the services and the contracts that would happen once they are purchased. >> Tovo: Great. Thank you. And I want to turn to the program involving the downtown Austin community court. With regard to the expansion of mental health resources. I'm not sure who is best to speak to that program. Is that the one that responds to the resolution that I brought along with my colleagues in December that relies on funding in the downtown Austin community court had available, as well as the downtown Austin alliance? And these are shoring up mental [4:32:34 PM] health resources for individuals who are on the waiting list at the deck? Or is this a different initiative? >> Robert here with the downtown Austin community court. This is a different initiative. The resolution from December was for healthcare services and mental health services with integral care as well as [inaudible] Also funding a portion of that. >> Tovo: Can you help us understand the difference between the two programs and has that program started yet? I know the hope was to get it up and running as the new year started but with the storm I understand that may have been delayed. >> Sure. It was a bit delayed. We just got the fully-executed contract last week and integral care is currently in the process of hiring staff to ramp up that program and get it off the ground asap. The program in the presentation was the expanded mobile crisis outreach team, so that was [4:33:36 PM] behavioral health personnel embedded in the 9-1-1 call center as well as having a mental health professional in the field to respond either in conjunction with APD and ems or by themselves. The behavioral health specialist can respond to a mental health crisis without law enforcement present. >> Tovo: As we look at the slide on page 9, there are much, much needed outreach individuals being added to host and to emcot. So the additional host team members, the three additional team members that care has hired for host, and it says they're actively recruiting to fill other positions. How many other positions will there be within that host [4:34:38 PM] program? >> Council member tovo, my understanding is there is a total of five positions for that particular team, for that portion of the team. They have three that are on board and are, you know, are actively working now and they're working on filling the last two positions. >> Tovo: Great. Mcat will be dispatched through the 9-1-1 system? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Tovo: Host will be more -- I guess this is really a question. It was designed to be more proactive and out in the field building relationships and meeting needs as possible. Can you help me understand whether that role has changed for host and it will too be dispatchable. There's no number people can call host if there's an individual who, you know, is in need of that contact, really. This is more of a proactive approach. So has that mission continued [4:35:40 PM] along the same lines? And is the geographic boundaries of host as it expands going to stay the same as well or are the geographic boundaries expanding beyond what they currently are, which is downtown and up through west campus, up through 29th. Though I understand host has been dispatched well outside of the downtown and university area. Sorry to bundle all those questions together. >> No, not a problem. Not a problem. So speaking directly just to host, we have made every attempt to keep it in the defined areas and it is a proactive resource, it's not a responsive resource. So just like it started out and the way it was intended to be set up and after many long conversations, I know you and I were in quite a few meetings with bill Brice and others. We have tried to to remain as [4:36:43 PM] strictly to that mission as we can but there have been extenuating circumstances where the resource was requested just outside of the downtown area or wherever. Of course we don't want to leave anybody behind if we can help it. So we've stayed to that, the fidelity of that particular conversation at the very beginning. But we are going through a process right now, Valdez and his team, Laura at community court are helping us come up with a needs assessment. I believe that may have been a request that came from you earlier in the year, do any needs assessments for host, and we're going through that right now. So we'll be coming back to you I think in the next few weeks or month to present the discussion and what those findings are. >> Tovo: Thank you. So as I understand that, host is kind of -- thank you. I like that responsive. I'm going to use that term in the future. So host will continue to be a proactive resource using the [4:37:43 PM] same geographic areas, but it is expanding to be kind of a larger number of resources on it. >> Yeah, and that's where we struggle because the word's gotten out so certainly people know and they want us to help where we can. What we've done is, you know, the -- like for instance APD and integral care and all those things, we work really hard to keep to the model we agreed to in the very beginning. I won't say it's never left the boundaries of downtown. We have made conscious decisions to try to bring in resources from path or, you know, whatever, to keep host in that downtown. That is their focus. They do maintain a very prominent presence in the downtown area and west campus. That's the bread and butter of their work. >> Tovo: Thank you. >> I just want to make sure that point is clarified that emcot [4:38:48 PM] serves -- is not specific to homeless individuals and that serves the overall community as well. Just make sure there is awareness to that point. >> Tovo: Can I ask one last question? I apologize because I know you all have explained this in the past, but can you please just remind us what the difference is between the community health paramedics who are providing mental health response and the emcot responders? >> Sure. The paramedics, they are paramedics within our department. They work under the community health paramedic umbrella and they work in a variety of different capacities. But they will be -- we're working on making them a resource that would be first in line to respond to appropriate psychiatric emergencies. Those that are nonviolent, don't involve weapons, and those that [4:39:48 PM] are deemed appropriate for that. So we're getting them rolled out into the front lines soon. The expanded mobile crisis team are employees with integral care and master level of clinicians and that team specifically worked with police and ems in responding to requests when a police officer or an ambulance crew is on scene with somebody that meets this particular criteria. And we have dispatched them actually -- through ems we dispatch those resources to our crews and so it's very -- host and the integral care and emcot is a different part of that organization and they respond to their 9-1-1 related incidents. [4:40:48 PM] >> Tovo: Thank you so very much. >> I had to step away so I think we can take one more question. I saw you, council member kitchen and council member alter both raise your hand. >> Kitchen: I don't need to talk about mine now. >> Casar: Thanks, council member. We still have a couple of presentations left. Council member alter. >> Alter: Mine will hopefully be quick. I was hoping they could speak about the office of violence prevention, the gun violence prevention aspects, which was one of the key reasons for setting up the office. It was not mentioned in your presentation. I was wondering if you could speak to that briefly and I'll just flag that. My office will want to have another meeting with you soon on that topic as well. >> Certainly. And so the team had a good meeting and I'm going to forget the person's name but with a [4:41:51 PM] member of APD, the data analyst, and he gave us some information about existing programs that APD has had to provide safes and locks and so we're going to expand on that and plan a community event to distribute that part of the program. We're also working with that consultant team that I mentioned earlier about the national experts to give us some guidance around what a campaign around gun safety would look like. We did get some good information about the thefts of guns and where they're concentrated in the city. It was in the area of the domain and so we're gathering that information so that we can have a focused strategy around the need for safety and plan those events in that way. But, yes, that is part of the plan. The second piece to that is that we are working on two consultant [4:42:53 PM] agreements to do a deeper dive into the police data to help us pinpoint areas where gun violence is more prevalent and then work on strategies that, you know, in conjunction with APD work at the root causes of some of that. And that ties to the youth violence program that we're looking at to pilot in this year. But, yes, I'll definitely follow up with you with some more information. >> Thank you for that clarification. I look forward to the additional information and the good work. >> You're welcome. >> Casar: Thanks, y'all. I know this has been a lot of work and after sometime at the city we know that sometimes these things take longer, and I appreciate that actually many of these things have gone a lot faster to get implemented. So I appreciate that. Before I move us into the next item, since it looks like we probably will have to go past 5:00 P.M. To get both items in, [4:43:54 PM] I wanted to check with staff if there is one of the two items that we should take up first. We have the briefing on the regional intelligence center as well as the Austin area wildlife hub and I don't think it matters to me which one we take up but I want to see if staff would prefer us to take one up over the other. >> I believe, council member -- and I'm going to be withdrawing myself to get ready for our task force meeting. I believe the Aric item would go first and we would finish with the wildfire presentation. >> Casar: That sounds good. I'll let you take it away with the Aric item. >> Give us a moment to swap staff in and out and that should get going as soon as staff is in. >> Casar: Chair. I'm handing it to you. We're moving into item no. 2. [4:45:00 PM] >> My name is Joe and I'm the assistant chief with the Austin police department. I appreciate the opportunity to come in front of you and discuss Aric and answer any questions you may have. I know that time is running a little bit short. I'll keep my opening comments pretty brief so that I can turn it over to some other panel members that we have who will be giving the presentation about the Aric. One of the areas I oversee is our intelligence division and that includes the Austin regional intelligence center. The Aric was opened in December of 2010 and currently includes 21 partner agencies that are covering a ten-county region. This resource really plays a strong role in central Texas in providing information and intelligence to law enforcement agencies to battle criminal activity and to counter violence [4:46:00 PM] and domestic terrorism. I'm going to turn it over to lieutenant Michael early. He'll be giving an overview of the Aric and its mission and operations and has a short presentation. And I will stay on if there are any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, chief for the introduction. Thank you to the committee for allowing us to come present and to the council members for also being present and listening. We are here at the Aric -- and I have my deputy directors present as well. Like the chief said, the Aric was stood up in December of 2010 and it is a nationally-recognized center, so if we could go ahead and power up the powerpoint that I have prepared. Next slide, please. [4:47:04 PM] So what is a fusion center? A fusion center is a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and information to the center with the goal of maximizing their ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. So the keywords there, detect and prevent as far as the fusion center goes. That's our objective is to interrupt, disrupt major incidents before they ever occur. Next slide, please. How did fusion centers begin? Shortly after 9/11 occurred there was the 9/11 commission was developed and one of the failures that was discovered was that each law enforcement agency was operating within silos. [4:48:07 PM] And had they been sharing information and collaborating and cooperating with each other the chances of disrupting that event would have been increased substantially. So that's what kicked off the fusion center evolution or creation and put us where we are today. Next slide, please. This is our area of responsibility -- and you'll hear us call it an aor. This is theapitol council of governments area and it's ten counties, 8600 square miles, and encompasses around 2.2 million people. As you can see, there's other colors on the state of Texas map. The other colors indicate other fusion center locations. [4:49:07 PM] So there's eight fusion centers in the state of Texas. We are co-located if the state fusion center here at Texas dps headquarters. Next slide, please. Again, like I said, we are a recognized fusion center by the department of homeland security. Our purpose is to collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence information to the law enforcement community. We assist law enforcement agencies with case investigations and analysis, a large portion of our workload has to do with the case investigation assistance. We also vet suspicious activity reporting and we assist the joint terrorism task force, which is assigned to the FBI here in Austin. Next slide, please. These are our partner agencies -- our official partner agencies. We have 21 official partners. [4:50:13 PM] I'll let you guys look at that and while you're browsing, you might notice the fire department -- the Austin fire department is the only fire department listed as an official partner. Chief Kennedy, are you on? >> Yes, I am. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to share a few thoughts on the Austin fire department's involvement and partnership in the Austin regional intelligence center. I am Jeffrey Kennedy, the assistant fire chief of Austin fire department's homeland security and fire prevention branch. As mentioned in previous slides, because of presidential policy, our national preparedness and the 9/11 commission report, the Austin police department has been very gracious and stellar in effectively integrating the Austin fire department in the fusion center. So we're very thankful to them and council as well for the inclusion. We have been a partner with the Austin regional intelligence center since 2011 and we have benefited as a consumer, a [4:51:14 PM] collaborator, and a contributor. And while all those overlap, I'll begin with us as a consumer. In support of our own mission statement, we have used this partnership to enhance our prevention preparedness and emergency response plans. And through this partnership, we've had access to other fusion center resources, educational materials, and training classes which have allowed us to create our own continual education classes recognized by the Texas commission on fire protection as they relate to responding to terrorist events and violent extremist events. So we've also benefited through our arson investigations division with this partnership through the many databases as well as the force multiplier with the outreach and the threat liaison officer program in apprehension of arson suspects. As a collaborator within the Aric, our non-law enforcement voice adds a perspective to the [4:52:15 PM] homeland security concept but we kind of dialed it down as a whole of community in which the approach is diverse and draws on the strength of the differences of the different operating agencies. So we have built trust within the Aric and built trust with APD that our perspective is respected and looked at very closely when we're analyzing or helping to analyze certain situations. Finally, as a contributor, not only for reporting suspicious activity, we also educate and provide outreach to other fire departments in that ten-county region as well as non-law enforcement agencies. And across the nation as well. There are over 25 fire departments that integrated into fusion centers across the nation and with our decade-long relationship with APD, we've had the opportunity to assist and consult with a number of fire departments and fusion centers to get their program started with fire service integration. [4:53:16 PM] That's not only just here in the state of Texas but it also has benefited us across the nation. So as I close with those experiences as consumer collaborator and contributor, we have benefited immensely with this partnership. Thank you. >> Thank you, chief Kennedy. Speaking on behalf of the Aric, I can tell you that we absolutely love our relationship with the fire department. They bring a unique perspective to threats and scenarios that police officers aren't trained to see. They see different things than we do. So we absolutely love our partnership with them and our relationship that we built with them. As you can see, we have 21 partners. There's many others, actually, police departments and sheriff's offices that would like to become members, more so probably [4:54:17 PM] than we can actually bring in all at one time. So I think we have a product that others are seeking. Next slide. As far as a lot of personnel for the Aric, we have one APD commander, we have one lieutenant assigned here and he's also the director, and that's myself. We have one sergeant, he's a deputy director. We have one criminal intelligence analyst supervisor. She's a civilian deputy director. We have two full-time detectives housed here. We have two FBI joint terrorism task force detectives assigned at the FBI Austin office. We have three full-time APD crime intelligence analysts here at the Aric with the capability of going, I believe, up to about ten with our partner agency analysts when they're here at the Aric. We have four full-time APD [4:55:18 PM] officers who are intelligence officers. One fire lieutenant attached to the Aric and one public health personnel. Next slide, please. I'll let you take a look at this slide here. Intelligence information received from various sources is analyzed from the central Texas area and disseminated as appropriate. So in a nutshell, the Aric is a hub for information. Information comes into the Aric. It's analyzed, it's vetted. It goes back out as an intelligence product. That's the flow. As far as the daily operations, we do what's called request for information. What I said earlier is that a large portion of our work product has to do with case [4:56:19 PM] assistance. That's what request for information is. When an investigator has hit a road block or needs additional information and they don't have access to it through databases that they have access to, they can reach out to us and we will provide them with the information that they seek, if we have it. The request for analysis, we do this on occasion, quite often, actually. And that is where someone requests for us to do linkage charts and things like that. We have a robust outreach and tlo program. Our outreach and tlo side of the house is kind of our bread and butter. That is the -- it's a core capability for our fusion center. It's an area that we spend a lot of time in teaching and [4:57:22 PM] educating. It's a very important part of the Aric. The suspicious activity reporting, like I said earlier we do vetting and we also follow up with that. We do realtime open source analysis, and we also do special event threat analysis for major events. I believe we're doing about 13 a year for threat analysis in major events. Down below you'll see the ways that we can get information through state agencies, other local law enforcement public safety partners, private industry, and tips from the public. Next slide, please. So intelligence is received from various sources, all the way from the federal level down to the municipal level. It's collected and analyzed and we're looking for a nexus to the central Texas area and we're [4:58:22 PM] looking for crime trends, terror alerts or bulletins and that can be officer bulletins, request to apprehend, which would be a fugitive, or request to identify somebody -- let's say somebody committed a crime and we have a photograph or a video of them and no one knows who they are. We can push that out to all of our partners in hopes of getting that person identified. Next slide. Okay. I believe that's it. Any questions for the Aric or -- okay. Here we go. So as far as investigative case support, like I said if an investigator hits a road block and can't push their case forward, they're lacking some key information, they can send us a request for information. [4:59:22 PM] We have access to databases that they do not have access to that we can help push their case forward for them. I think it's important to note that the Aric does not conduct investigations. We have no stake in investigation. We merely assist the investigators in obtaining the information that they seek. I believe that's the last slide, am I correct? >> Harper-madison: Thank you very much. We appreciate the presentation. Colleagues, do we have any questions? Sorry, I'm doing that thing again where I can't see a grid. Council member alter. >> Alter: You might have touched on this but I think I missed it. Can you speak to the financing of Aric? How that works. [5:00:28 PM] >> The financing of Aric? We receive grant funding every year. That's managed through the governor's office and this year I believe we're getting $450,000 in grant fund. And then we also have a sustainment fund. The Aric is unique from other fusion centers in that to be a member of the Aric you pay a fee annually. And the fee is $117 per sworn officer for your department. Annually I think we receive somewhere in the ballpark of $460,000 in sustainment fund from our partner agencies. >> Alter: And so then with all of that staff covered, then how much are you receiving from the general fund towards Aric? >> For salaries and benefits? >> Alter: Uh-huh. [5:01:28 PM] And whatever costs you have. >> I think about $2.3 million for the APD staff with salary and benefits. And the annual APD sustainment payment is ballpark $226,000 annual. >> Alter: And then out of that, roughly $2.5 million. Is the $900,000 in the grant and the sustainment pay for that or is that on top of that? >> Two separate accounts. Maybe I'm not understanding the question. >> Alter: I'm trying to understand how much we are paying to stand this up and trying to understand the regional contributions and how all that flows and whether we are essentially subsidizing [5:02:28 PM] other areas or -- I'm trying to assess the benefits and one piece of that is the financial element. And so there's a lot of resources we're putting in and if that doesn't cover -- if none of the sustaining stuff covers that but most of the staff. I'm trying to understand that. >> Correct. We are the staff. We support it with personnel and we support -- it's managed by our finance division. The majority of the work that's done here is done -- is generated by the Austin police department. So we are a critical resource for the Austin police department as well as a resource -- >> Council member, can I help answer that question? Everyone that contributes personnel to the fusion center, whether that's APD or a partner [5:03:30 PM] agency, is responsible for covering the salaries of their employees. And that comes out of the general fund for APD. The sustainment fund, that is contributed by all the partners, including APD as well as the grant funding does not go to salaries. It actually goes to the sustainment for all of the equipment, the databases, the structure and so forth. >> Alter: Okay. So, again, not questioning the value of Aric at all but really appreciate some follow-up data on kind of the breakdown of who is using what to spend relative to what we're contributing in terms of funding because we're, you know, it's great if we get the majority benefit but we're paying a majority of the costs, from what I'm understanding from this brief overview, which I don't have in writing so I may misinterpret it. [5:04:31 PM] None of that is to question Aric. Sometimes we revisit funding models and I think that would be something that, you know, as we have scarce resources and we have scarce personnel that we need to look at again and assess that in line with best practices across the country. And having done that and, if not, can we see some analysis of those financials? >> Absolutely. I can just tell you that the Austin police department does provide a good amount of funding for the center but they also do the lion's share of the biggest consumer of what comes out of the center. So more requests for information, more requests for analysis and investigative information that our criminal investigators are fulfilled by the Aric than more than any other partners combined. [5:05:32 PM] I think there is a lot of value for APD, particularly, and then everybody else sees a great value based on what they pay into the center as well. >> Alter: Again, at this point I'm not questioning the value at all, I just need, you know, insofar as we are responsible for those resources, I would like to see the data to back up what you just said, which I'm sure is perfectly true but I would like to see the data for that. >> Certainly. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Harper-madison: Council member Kelly. >> Kelly: Thank you for this great overview of the fusion center. I had the unique opportunity, prior to learning for office, to learn about the asset that our city uses. When I enrolled in the citizens' police academy, what struck me as I learned about the fusion center that you all prevent incidents from occurring and information relating to incidents that may occur. I think the most interesting piece is the work that goes on [5:06:33 PM] behind the scenes and oftentimes that work goes on in the residents of the ten-county region it serves, we don't know about it because it's all happening back behind the scenes and it benefits us from that public safety background and all the agencies because they're able to share information. I'm wondering if you might be able to elaborate a little bit, without giving away all your secrets, on some examples of incidents or information specifically that the fusion center has been able to get in front of. >> Absolutely. Thank you for bringing this up. In 2019 we saw -- >> Kelly: >> Harper-madison: I want to do a time check. It's 5:07 P.M., so I can appreciate the council member's question, if we can keep the response brief, we still have one more briefing. >> Yes, ma'am. In 2019 we saw 148 school threats to our local aor. [5:07:33 PM] As you know school threats are a huge concern nationally as well as throughout here in Texas. We are absolutely -- that is one thing that we do really well is mitigate school threats. Nothing is more precious than our children and we are completely dedicated to seeing that those incidents do not occur. Also, in 2020 we had a subject that was terminated by his employer. He was very upset by this. He made threats to come back and commit workplace violence with a weapon, a handgun. We received the information. We began running it down and vetting it. We conducted interviews, learned that this subject was in fact very serious about his threats. We sent patrol out at the time that he had said he was going to [5:08:34 PM] return to his workplace to carry out his threats. Patrol was able to apprehend this subject with the weapon, with ammunition and extra magazines on his way back to the work site. So that's another example. It's just that the intelligence world is different in that if we do our job correctly and we do it to the best of our ability and all things happen the way they should, it's not newsworthy. We have prevented it. We have disrupted it. >> Kelly: Thank you for explaining that. I have one final question, I sit now on the cap cog executive committee. I'm wondering if that is where some of your funding comes from as well. >> Yes. Yes, it does. >> Kelly: Thank you. [5:09:36 PM] >> Harper-madison: Colleagues, are there any other questions? If not, I have a few of my own. All right. So I'll practice what I preach, so to speak. I wanted to ask a couple questions. There was one mention to -- did you say linkage charts? It's sort of low. I thought you said one of the services that you provide is linkage charts. Did I hear that? >> Link analysis is what my deputy director is advising. Link analysis. >> Harper-madison: And I'm assuming the link analysis is self-explanatory. You're making a chart of everything is connected? >> It has to be a criminal case. It can be anything from people to phone numbers. We're just making linkages between the different elements involved in the crime. >> Harper- madison: I see. Who asked for those? [5:10:38 PM] >> It can be investigators, organized crime investigators. It can even been the district attorney's office investigators or even prosecutors. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. So one of the reasons I really wanted to get a better understanding of Aric -- it was sort of loosely on my radar but really became on my radar when I found out about several juneteenth activities that had been surveilled. I'm trying to get a better understanding of why that took place. I'm not sure if you're familiar directly with that situation, and if not I can elaborate. I'm very curious why community events for African American cultural celebration were surveilled. >> Yes, I'm loosely familiar [5:11:39 PM] with what you're talking about. We don't like to use the word "Surveil" because that indicates that we're continually reviewing or continually monitoring something, and that's not the case. It's called open- source analysis. Whenever we become aware of an event within our aor, we just take a look at open source information. Twitter, Facebook, things like that. All we're doing is looking to see if there's any threats being made to those events. Because the safety of our community and the members attending those are our top priority and threats can come -- as we all know threats come online a lot of times. So we don't like to use the word surveil. We don't like to use the word monitor. We prefer to use the word [5:12:41 PM] research or review. We're looking for threats to the attendees. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for clarifying that language also. I'm just curious what, generally speaking in addition to things like a juneteenth or let's say a black history month or Cinco de mayo. I'm very curious. In addition to that, what other kinds of community events are researched? >> It could be south by southwest, any protest or rally that's planned. Juneteenth, acl, F 1, a large concert. Any place that a large portion of our community is going to gather. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that and I'll stop there. I'm getting a note that we really need to wrap it up. And so I think vice chair Casar [5:13:47 PM] has already taken his leave. Council member Kelly, I think that will leave you and I to make the decision. I think what's being asked is whether or not we're comfortable moving the wildfire briefing to next month. >> Kelly: I'm okay with that. I was going to possibly suggest that if we do have these meetings, maybe we think about scheduling them a little earlier in the day so that we can review things more comprehensively and leave room for questions. >> Harper-madison: I'll connect with you offline about how the committee meetings are lined up. >> Kelly: Thank you. >> Harper-madison: That to say, I actually -- vice chair, do you have any thoughts on whether or not -- >> Casar: I'm okay with waiting until next month. I had something come up and I had to step away during this briefing, but I'll continue to follow up and I'll watch what I miss. >> Harper-madison: In that case, for the parties on the line who need to make the necessary adjustments for us to move that wildfire briefing to next month, if you wouldn't mind going ahead and initiating that. [5:14:49 PM] And so ctm has to set up for a meeting at 5:30. In which case I'm going to give us about five more minutes to close it out, if there are any other questions from my colleagues. It doesn't appear to be so, in which case the agenda -- forgive me. I'm toggling. I think in my rush to close some tabs I might have closed my agenda tab. Here we go. Okay. So we've covered our briefings [5:15:49 PM] with the exception of the one that we'll move. In which case the last thing that we have on our agenda is to approve the proposed 2021 public safety committee meeting schedule. I'm sorry, council member alter. She was waving. >> Casar: I'll move that we do so and of course if we need to change dates or the timing then we can do that at a subsequent meeting. >> Harper-madison: So the mowing on the floor, vice chair Casar moves that we approve the 2021 meeting schedule. Can I get a second? >> I second that. >> Harper-madison: Thank you, council member Kelly seconds. Moved by Casar, seconded by council member Kelly. Can we take a vote on that one? It appears we are unanimous with [5:16:50 PM] committee member Adler not on the dais. And with that, unless there are any other questions, I figure we can talk about new business and potential items for discussion at a later date. >> Casar: That sounds fine with me. I might have had another question or two for Aric but given the low amount of time and I had to miss what y'all asked, I'll watch the tape and submit any of those questions by e-mail. Thanks, chair. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. All right, everybody. With that said -- oh, I'm sorry. Council member Kelly. >> Kelly: I just want to say you did a great job chairing the meeting. Thank you. >> Harper-madison: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. At 5:17 we're going to adjourn the public safety meeting. Have a good day, everybody.