Meet Lisa Davis, one of the finalists for Austin's next police chief

Austin is in the home stretch of electing a new permanent police chief. Both finalists are visiting the city this week to meet with city and community leaders.

Lisa Davis, currently deputy chief of police with the Cincinnati Police Department, said her top three priorities for the Austin Police Department are boosting recruiting, morale within the department and citizen engagement.

Davis was one of two finalists, along with Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, for the position of Austin’s next top cop. She answered questions from media representatives Tuesday morning.

Watch the full press conference here or visit ATXN’s YouTube channel.

City Manager TC Broadnax will select the next chief, but that selection must be confirmed by the Austin City Council.

The new head of the department takes over a force with over 340 vacancies, an ongoing morale crisis among officers and a strained relationship with the public.

Whoever is chosen will be the eleventh permanent chief of the Austin Police Department since its creation in 1924. Davis would be the second woman to be appointed chief of the Austin Police Department. The first was Elizabeth Watson, who served from 1992 to 1997.

This will also be the first time that someone from outside the organization has been elected to lead the Austin Police Department since Art Acevedo was appointed police chief in 2007.

“This is an opportunity for someone from outside to come in and look at the entire staff and think about how we can strengthen what we have and what we do and increase and advance community engagement,” Davis said. “The first thing I have to do is start building trust. … That’s done by listening and being there.”

Recruitment, retention and morale

Currently, the department has approximately 340 sworn officer positions that are vacant. This problem has persisted for several years and has led to a morale crisis within the department and unsuccessful efforts to retain officers.

The department is also seeing a rise in retirements and departures from the service as the city and police union have not had a long-term contract since last year. Entering into a long-term contract is considered one of the best ways to boost morale, retention and recruitment.

To boost morale, Davis said she will listen to the concerns of both sworn and civilian employees and be open and transparent with them. Davis noted that officers are generally a department’s best recruiters and that keeping them happy will increase the number of people who want to join the department.

Combating crime

Davis said she believes in “evidence-based” policing, which she described as using data to pinpoint crime hotspots in a city, then staffing those areas with more officers, and working with the community to combat crime.

Of Austin, she said data showed that 99.5 percent of streets were “safe” and that nearly 30 percent of the city’s violent crimes occurred in a specific area.

Davis said she will train her officers in “criminal science,” such as changing the way officers patrol these problem neighborhoods.

When asked about citizen complaints that officers did not show up for certain calls, which the department usually attributes to staffing issues, Davis said she wants to get “creative” and look at other ways to respond to minor calls that do not involve violent crimes.

Police supervision

Davis said transparency is “extremely important” when it comes to implementing the Austin Police Oversight Act, which voters passed last year. Since its passage, activists have alleged the city and police have failed to implement key provisions of the law, leading to a lawsuit against city and police leadership.

A continuing point of contention in the law is the “G-file,” a type of confidential police department personnel file. The city claims it cannot dispose of these files under state law, while activists disagree.

It has also been a point of contention in negotiations between the city and the Austin police union, with the city saying it would not agree to a long-term contract allowing the file to be kept in order to comply with the Police Oversight Act. This file is where the department keeps a log of every unfounded complaint filed against an officer. The Austin Police Association fears that removing this file would harm officers by making this information public.

While Davis believes citizens have a right to know what is going on in a publicly funded agency, she believes transparency must be balanced with an official’s right to have no unfounded blemishes on his or her record.

Changes to the Police Academy

The police academy is also tied to recruitment. Four years ago, the city council suspended all cadet training to examine revamping the police academy in hopes of moving it from a “warrior” to a “guardian” mentality.

The city hired New York-based consulting firm Kroll, which released a series of reports on the academy’s transformation. A March report said there remains “more work” to implement those changes and that police leadership is key to ensuring change.

Davis said she has read the reports and believes a balance needs to be found between “stress-oriented paramilitary” instruction and “adult-oriented learning.”

Who is Lisa Davis?

Before joining the Cincinnati Police Department, Davis served in the U.S. Navy. She began as a patrol officer in her hometown of Cincinnati in 1992 and worked her way up the career ladder over the past three decades.

After four years as a sergeant, Davis was promoted to lieutenant for ten years. Her resume states that she developed a program that reduced car thefts by 30 percent.

Davis became captain in 2015. Her resume states that she implemented programs in her district that reduced shootings and robberies by 36%.

Davis was promoted to deputy chief in 2020 and oversaw the Cincinnati Police Department’s Investigations Bureau and Support and Resources Bureau, which had a combined budget of over $38 million, according to her resume.

The Austin Police Department’s budget for this fiscal year was $477 million.

Davis said she was “up to the task” of taking over a department that not only has a larger budget but is also located in a larger city, as Cincinnati is only about a third of Austin’s population.

Despite Austin’s size, Davis said she will be involved in day-to-day operations, looking at data such as traffic stops, use-of-force incidents and complaints.

“I have something I can bring here,” Davis said. “I have something to give and I have some things to share. And I think that would be a great fit here.”

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