Austin Police Department (APD) is the principal law enforcement agency serving Austin, Texas. As of Fiscal Year 2022, the agency had an annual budget of $443.1 million and employed around 2,484 personnel, including approximately 1,809 officers. The department also employs 24 K-9 police dogs and 16 horses. Joseph Chacon was confirmed as Austin's new interim police chief effective April 11, 2021. Chacon was named permanent Chief of Police in October 2021. Budget was cut by more than 150 million dollars in 2021
Antonio Buehler is an American educator, entrepreneur, and activist known for his work on police accountability and his pursuit of a more widely recognized constitutional right to photograph, film and document the public activities of police. In 2012, Buehler was arrested in Austin, Texas, for video-recording police after he allegedly witnessed a woman being abused by officers. After the arrest, Buehler co-founded the Peaceful Streets Project, an organization that trains the public to record police activity. Buehler has been arrested a total of six times, has had twelve criminal charges filed against him, and has had dozens of criminal investigations initiated against him.
Natasha McKenna was a 37-year-old African-American woman who died in Fairfax County, Virginia while in police custody. The catalyst event, extraction from her cell and being tasered while shackled, was captured on the video of the Fairfax County jail.
Live PD is an American television program that aired on the A&E Network from 2016 to 2020. It followed police officers in the course of their patrols live, broadcasting select encounters with the nation. The show was hosted by Dan Abrams with analysis provided by Tom Morris Jr. and Lt. Sean "Sticks" Larkin.
The Austin serial bombings occurred between March 2 and March 21, 2018, mostly in Austin, Texas. In total, five package bombs exploded, murdering two people and injuring another five. The perpetrator, 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt of Pflugerville, Texas, was pulled over by police on March 21. Conditt detonated an explosive inside his vehicle, killing himself and injuring a police officer.
James Dell Talarico is an American politician and former teacher. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018 to represent District 52, which includes the cities of Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, and Georgetown in Williamson County. Following the 2020 redistricting cycle, Talarico announced his run for a seat in District 50 in 2022. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
On August 5, 2016, Jamarion Rashad Robinson, a 26-year-old African American man who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was shot 59 times and killed in a police raid in East Point, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. The shooting occurred when at least 14 officers of a Southeast Regional Fugitive Taskforce from at least seven different agencies, led by U.S. Marshals, forcibly entered the apartment of Robinson's girlfriend to serve a warrant for his arrest. The warrant was being served on behalf of the Gwinnett County police and the Atlanta Police Department, and authorities said they had sought his arrest for attempted arson and aggravated assault of a police officer. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) stated that Robinson had been repeatedly ordered to put down a weapon and that officers who had been involved in the shooting reported Robinson fired at them three times.
"I can't breathe" is a slogan associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The phrase originates from the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York City Police Officer. A number of other Black Americans, such as Javier Ambler, Manuel Ellis, Elijah McClain, and George Floyd, have said the same phrase prior to dying during similar law-enforcement encounters. According to a 2020 report by The New York Times, the phrase has been used by over 70 people who died in police custody.
Manuel Ellis was a 33-year-old African American man who died on March 3, 2020, during an arrest by police officers in Tacoma, Washington. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Ellis had attacked a police car and then attacked officers, leading to the arrest. State prosecutors quoted civilian witnesses as saying that Ellis did not attack the police car or officers; they also said it was the officers who initiated the use of physical force on Ellis after a conversation. Video of the incident showed officers repeatedly punching Ellis, choking him, using a Taser, and kneeling on him. State prosecutors stated that "Ellis was not fighting back", citing witness statements and video evidence. A police radio recording showed that Ellis said he "can’t breathe". Ellis told officers "can't breathe, sir" multiple times, according to prosecutors. Ellis was hogtied, face-down, with an officer on him, for at least six minutes, and a spit hood was placed on his head in this position, stated prosecutors. Ellis died at the scene while receiving medical aid from paramedics.
On Patrol: Live is an American reality television and docuseries that airs on the cable and satellite television network Reelz. It follows camera crews going on ride-alongs with law enforcement agencies in the United States. The series is an unofficial revival of Live PD which aired on A&E from 2016 to 2020 and was cancelled following the murder of George Floyd and killing of Javier Ambler.
The killing of Christian Glass occurred on June 11, 2022, in Clear Creek County, Colorado, near the town of Silver Plume, at approximately 12:30 am. Glass, aged 22, was driving alone in a vehicle in the evening of June 10 when the vehicle went off the road. Unable to get it back on the road, he called 911 for help at approximately 11:20 pm, June 10. When the police arrived, Glass may have had some form of mental distress, and refused to get out of the vehicle. When a police officer, with weapon drawn, asked him why not, he replied "Sir, I'm terrified."
