Austin Separates Forensics Lab From Police Department

AUSTIN, TX — Austin City Council members on Thursday approved an ordinance to create an independent forensics lab, separating it from the police department.

“This is important for survivors of violence and for equal justice under the law,” Austin City Council member Greg Casar said in a prepared statement. “We must prevent rape kit backlogs, prevent inaccurate science that impedes justice, and avoid further failures of accountability. This move has been a long time in the making, and it’s because of survivors and advocates that we are able to take this step forward."

This vote moves about $11.9 million that was previously part of the police department’s budget into a new Forensic Science Department. This will not eliminate any of the functions in the forensic lab, officials stressed, but it will ensure that the lab is administered independently of the police department.

The transfer of the forensics lab is part of an ongoing council process toward "reimagining" law enforcement — a process often referred to as the colloquially reductive "police defunding" term. Rather than a gutting of an entire budget, the process involves the redirecting of certain functions from the police to agencies better equipped to handle such tasks. City council members also have moved to eliminate police interactions with homeless people or those in the throes of mental crisis.

Such efforts have earned the ire of Gov. Greg Abbott, who has vowed to explore ways to transfer the Austin Police Department under state control. Casar noted the governor's objections but noted an independent lab would yield greater transparency and eliminate case backlogs.

“Gov. Abbott has declared it a priority to punish cities for taking steps like this to improve our public safety budgets, even though Austin will now be meeting the national standard for forensic science labs," Casar said. "It goes to show that Abbott is not concerned with public safety, he’s just interested in bashing Austin.”