Austin Police Department (APD) is the principal law enforcement agency serving Austin, Texas. As of fiscal year 2026, the agency had an annual budget of $527.9 million and employed around 2,457 personnel, including approximately 1,819 officers. The department also employs 24 K-9 police dogs and 16 horses. , Lisa Davis is the current chief of police. Early History 1840–1862 Prior to the establishment of the Austin Police Department, the city's laws were enforced by a City Marshal, the first of which was elected in 1840. The Marshal's responsibilities included participating in executions and enforcing the city's slave curfew.
1862–1886 City ordinance was drafted in 1862, establishing the Austin Police Department and the office of the Chief of Police. The APD worked alongside the City Marshal to enforce the law for over two decades. The city's mounted police division was created in 1872.
It was not until 1874 that new ordinance established an official city police uniform. Police duties and departmental structure were not legally defined until 1880 and 1883, respectively.
Austin experienced its first recorded serial killer between 1884 and 1885, known as the "Servant Girl Annihilator" or "Midnight Assassin," who killed at least eight people, mostly young women and girls. Contemporary journalism criticized the APD for its inefficacy in solving these murders. APD was never able to identify the killer.
1886–1924 New ordinances further developed expectations of the police in 1886, as well as effectively merging the offices of Chief of Police and City Marshal. The two titles were used interchangeably for a short period of time.
In 1921, new ordinance was written to establish traffic laws, as automobiles began to proliferate. The APD was given the responsibility of enforcing these laws.
1924–2000 The Marshal system was officially dissolved in 1924. The office of the Chief of Police was also changed from an elected position to one appointed by the mayor.
The first female police officer in Austin, Maybelle Stout, joined the department in 1950. The city's first female lieutenant, Bobby Owens, was appointed in 1989. The first female chief of the APD, Elizabeth Watson, took the job in 1992.
Recent History Discrimination and bias In 2018, Austin's Office of Police Oversight received a complaint of racially biased harassment from an officer. The office investigated Officer Michael Hewitt, whose body camera footage showed the officer ticketing a Black man for loitering in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, while ignoring similar behavior from a white driver. Hewitt was not disciplined as a result of the office's investigation.
The Austin Police Association, Austin's police union, referenced the incident in a 2020 claim that the oversight office violated the union's labor contract with the city. The Austin-American Statesman reported that the APA claimed that the oversight office overstepped by "investigating citizens' complaints, contacting witnesses and demanding that internal affairs detectives ask certain questions during officer interviews."
Then-City Council Member Greg Casar accused the APA of using legal loopholes to "undermine basic oversight and accountability."
Budget cuts In August 2020, the Austin City Council voted unanimously to reduce the department's budget of $434 million by approximately $150 million. Then councilman Greg Casar introduced a three-part plan which called for an immediate reallocation of $21.5 million of the department's budget to social services. Other budget reduction measures included eliminating 150 vacant officer positions, and declining to add 30 new officer positions that had been budgeted as part of a broader staffing plan. The Texas Tribune reported the cuts to be "among the largest percentage decreases (in budget) in the nation this year." In the same year, Austin city manager Spencer Cronk placed a moratorium on Austin Police Department cadet classes to allow for an audit of the training academy materials and curriculum.
In 2021, 210 Austin police officers left the department, which was more than the two previous years combined.
The City of Austin's approved 2024-25 budget gives insight into the direction of Austin’s police spending. The Austin Police Department’s 2024-25 approved budget is $496,601,181 and the 2025-26 planned budget is $503,699,330. The APD Amended annual budget for 2020-21 was $309,706,558.
No longer responding to "non-emergencies" In October 2021, chief Joseph Chacon announced officers would no longer respond to non-emergency calls due to severe staffing shortages and at the recommendation of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. The policy, which took effect October 1, 2021, applies to burglaries no longer in progress, vehicle thefts, and vehicle collisions without injuries. Those who are seeking to make a report are fielded to 311 or encouraged to fill out a report on iReportAustin.com.
Systemic mishandling of sexual assault cases In 2018, a Texas Department of Public Safety audit found that Austin police detectives often improperly classified their closed cases as "cleared" when that category didn't apply. The audit prompted subsequent re-trainings, after which uses of the classification for sexual assault cases trended downward.
For years, according to the Austin-American Statesman, sexual assault victims' advocates have criticized the Travis County district attorney's office for prosecuting only a small number of the hundreds of sexual assault cases it receives each year. The issue emerged as a major theme in the 2020 campaign for district attorney. In 2022, the city of Austin reportedly paid more than $825,000 to settle lawsuits from more than a dozen women who said APD did not take seriously their complaints of sexual assault.
An analysis from the Washington, D.C.-based Police Executive Research Forum, which reportedly cost the city $950,000, found that the APD Sex Crimes Unit does not require detectives to respond to the scene of the assault or the hospital in most cases, and from 2013 to 2020, detectives only did so 17% of the time. According to the report, detectives' interviews with victims, suspects, and witnesses are often delayed or fail to occur. Of the cases that took place during the seven-year period, 65% were not discussed with a prosecutor.
Unsealed personnel and disciplinary files In May 2023, the city of Austin voted in favor of the Austin Police Oversight Act, known locally as "Prop A." Among other things, the Act required the city to unseal previously confidential APD records known as "G files," making them available to the public through the state's Public Information Act. These records contained unsubstantiated misconduct complaints against active duty police officers, as well as Internal Affairs investigation and disciplinary records, where applicable.
The G files where reportedly not made accessible to the public until September 2024, after the non-profit Equity Action filed a lawsuit in December 2023, demanding immediate implementation of all measures in the APOA. After multiple court proceedings a judicial ruling confirmed that keeping the files sealed was unlawful.
According to KXAN-TV, however, these records were not made freely available, requiring the individual or entity who filed the request to pay a fee to allegedly cover the labor of city records workers to compile the reports. KXAN reported that the city quoted an invoice for the files of all 1,510 then-active APD officers totaling $27,180.
In 2025, Republican Texas state Senator Phil King and state House Representative Cole Hefner brought Senate Bill 781 and House Bill 2486, respectively, before their chambers of the Texas legislature. Both of these bills would require police departments in Texas to maintain personnel records that would contain "any letter, memorandum, or document relating to alleged misconduct by the license holder for which the agency determines there is insufficient evidence to sustain the charge of misconduct." CBS Austin reported that this legislation seemed to allow for APD to potentially bypass the APOA and resume keeping confidential Internal Affairs and disciplinary records. State Senator Borris Miles from Houston, in a debate with Senator King on the chamber floor, stated that the result, if not the intent, of SB781 was to re-create confidential police personnel files that could not be subjected to public scrutiny. SB781 was recorded as passed in the Senate on May 19, 2025, but has yet to move to the House. HB2486 was marked as postponed in the House on May 13, 2025.
Austin Police Association contract In October 2024, police oversight advocacy group Equity Action requested intervention from the district court to block the approval of a new long-term contract with the Austin Police Association on the grounds that the contract contained language that would potentially allow the dismantling of Austin's civilian police oversight system, directly interfering with the Austin Police Oversight Act passed by popular vote in 2023. According to Equity Action, the new contract could allow the city to maintain sealed disciplinary records--referred to as the "G file"--of APD officers, that it would limit the Office of Police Oversight’s ability to conduct independent investigations into police misconduct, and it would allow the APA to undermine the Oversight Act by filing contract grievances over conflicts between the Oversight Act and the contract itself.
APA President Michael Bullock claimed that the new contract could not grant the ability to seal the G file, but also expressed the opinion that such sealed files are not unlawful. Austin City Council member Chito Vela cited a "verbal agreement" between the city's labor relations team and the APA that the contract would not be used to reseal the G file.
According to KXAN-TV, however: "For months, the g-file remained a sticking point during these negotiations [regarding the APA contract]." An unnamed APA representative was previously reported as saying that APA would not agree to a contract that allows the release of G file contents. Bullock also reportedly claimed that state law prohibits the release of g-file contents, while an unnamed City spokesperson stated “where there is a conflict between state law and a local law, as the presentation [presented in court] reiterates, state law provides a mechanism for local entities to override such law. That mechanism is a negotiated meet and confer agreement.”
The proposed APA contract also required a $218 million commitment from the city over the contract's lifetime, which sparked concerns about potential tax increases. While city staff claimed that approval of the contract would not result in a severe budget deficit, local policy analyst Julio Gonzalez Altamirano stated that the city staff's projections were "unreasonable and faulty."
Automated license plate reader program In June 2025, The Austin Chronicle reported that up to 20% of searches performed by officers during the pilot period of the APD's automated license plate reader program were performed without a clearly documented reason or case number attached to the search. Later the same month, following criticism from city residents and council members, the Austin City Council declined to vote on renewing the program, allowing the city's contract with Flock Safety to expire at the end of the month.
Involvement with ICE