Its Time to End Austin's Failed Experiment in Police Oversight, Activists Say
Richard Munroe just wanted to talk to someone when he called 911 at 3:48 a.m. on July 5, 2015. Sobbing and drunk, the 25-year-old Austin man unloaded on the dispatcher. He hadnt talked to his mother in months, hed recently quit his job and had spent time in a mental hospital. He asked if police could track his address from the call, saying more than once he didnt want the cops to come; the dispatcher assured him they couldnt track him. What youre doing is what we teach people to do from the time theyre little, the dispatcher told Munroe. When you have an issue, if you need something, you call 911.
Munroe realized police were outside his door when, 20 minutes into the call, his dogs started barking. He grew more upset when officers started shouting at him. Among the dispatchers last words to Munroe: Let me tell them they need to slow it down. Instead, one officer rushed Munroe with a Taser when he came out of the house wielding what turned out to be a BB gun. The officers claim they fired 23 bullets toward the house, six of which struck and killed Munroe, because they heard a popping sound and saw him raise what looked like a real gun. Just minutes earlier, Munroe and the dispatcher had talked about Fourth of July fireworks that were exploding across the city that morning.
A Travis County grand jury cleared all three officers who shot Munroe. The Austin Police Departments internal affairs investigation concluded that they didnt violate any department policies, and none were disciplined. The citys investigation into Munroes death would have ended there if not for the Citizen Review Panel that Austin had created years earlier for an independent look at such incidents. The panel is supposed to identify problems and make recommendations the department can implement to prevent future tragedies.
The Citizen Review Panels analysis called Munroes case an example of what not to do during a mental health call. Thats in part because the three officers who shot Munroe only had a combined 26 months on the job. Police summoned a helicopter to fly around Munroes neighborhood but never called for a crisis response team or mental health officer trained to deal with people in emotional distress. Cops fired nearly two dozen rounds toward Munroes house without even knowing whether anyone else was inside.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/austin-police-ignore-recommendations-citizen-oversight-panel-meant-bring-reform/