 "Photo: Joe Buglewicz")
Acting Chief of Austin Police Department Cathy Ellison said on Thursday the past suspensions and disciplinary measures of Sgt. Michael Olsen, the officer involved in the fatal shooting of Kevin Brown, were not a factor in his promotion to sergeant.
"When a person gets promoted, discipline doesn't come into that," Ellison said.
Olsen was previously suspended 60 days for use of inappropriate force in 2002, according to a memo from former Chief of Police Stan Knee.
An altercation between Brown and officers on June 3 near East 12th Street and Airport Boulevard at Chester's Nightclub led to a foot pursuit. Olsen followed Brown to a nearby apartment complex, where he fatally shot him twice in the back, according to a preliminary autopsy report.
In order to be promoted, an officer must stay at a certain rank for two years and then is allowed the opportunity to take an exam and go through an assessment process performed by assessors outside of the department.
"With those two cumulative grades, you're placed on what we call a list, and when there's a vacancy, you get promoted," Ellison said. "That's how Sgt. Olsen got promoted."
Ellison said that officers will aim at the torso because it is the biggest portion of the body.
"It's TV that makes us think that we can shoot guns out of hands and things like that, but that is just not plausible," she said. "If someone was shooting at you and you shoot them in the foot, the threat hasn't been stopped, and so that is what our job is to do - to stop the threat."
All officers are required to go through multiple hours of sensitivity training, governed by the state, including completion of a course in Los Angeles titled "Perspectives on Profiling."
"Every year our officers are getting some sort of training when it comes to cultural diversity and sensitivity," Ellison said. "One of the things that we were asked to do was to develop a class where officers and the community could come together in the same classroom to hopefully break down barriers and stereotypes of each other and get to know each other better."
Despite last weekend's incident, Ellison said officers will continue their initiative to patrol the neighborhood nearby Chester's.
Ellison said she met with Central-East Austin residents Monday. She said the community asked that officers continue patrolling the area.
The area's residents complained of loud music, loitering and drinking in the streets nearby Chester's. The department created the initiative, which authorized overtime for officers in order to guarantee those residents the same quality of life that other neighborhoods enjoy, Ellison said.
East Austin community groups threatened protest unless autopsy reports were released soon. Ellison said that a full autopsy report would not be available for two to four weeks, while medical examiners perform a toxicology report.
Olsen completed a 10-hour shift before beginning his patrol of that area. Ellison said that while the Austin Police Department has guidelines on how many hours an officer can work in a 24-hour period, Olsen did not violate any of those guidelines.
"We don't have officers violating that policy often, and if they do, they come and see me," she said.
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