{"id":27780,"date":"2024-01-23T15:29:25","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T21:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=27780"},"modified":"2024-01-23T15:29:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T21:29:25","slug":"art-acevedo-damn-it-watch-ak-of-a-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=27780","title":{"rendered":"Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AK of a series)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art Acevedo is not<\/strong> taking the job in Austin. Repeat: Art Acevedo is not<\/strong> taking the job in Austin.<\/p>\n

Acevedo notified Interim City Manager Jes\u00fas Garza Tuesday morning, following a firestorm about his appointment as an assistant city manager over the Austin Police Department (APD). On Tuesday afternoon, he posted a statement on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.<\/a>
\n“It is clear that this newly created position has become a distraction from the critical work ahead for our city, the Austin Police Department, and the Austin Police Association,” Acevedo said in part, adding that he has always loved and admired the members of APD and, “as a long time member of their extended family, I will continue to support them in any way I can. Their well being has and will always [be] a priority for me, which is one of the reasons I have made this decision.”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was actually surprised by the reaction to this, but haven’t had a chance to cover it. Many city leaders said, in essence, they felt bushwhacked by the decision and resented not being consulted.<\/p>\n

“The biggest reaction, aside from surprise, is how does this make the Austin Police Department stronger and better,” Councilmember Ryan Alter, who represents a large portion of South Austin, told KVUE. “There were real problems that happened under his watch. To bring him back … Doesn’t honor the victims and the work that had to be done after he left.”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was also particularly upsetting to victims of sexual assault. The city had a special apology ceremony this afternoon:<\/p>\n

According to previous KXAN reporting, in 2016, an audit showed that APD lab technicians weren\u2019t using proper techniques when calculating the odds of DNA results, potentially botching thousands of cases. The audit also found that evidence had been contaminated in at least one case and that lab technicians were using expired materials. The DNA lab closed in 2017.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The DNA lab problems, and the case mishandling, all took place under Chief Acevedo’s watch.<\/p>\n

If we find out anything about what he’s doing next, we’ll post another Art Watch here. To be honest, we’re a little surprised he never got a position in the Biden administration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art Acevedo is not taking the job in Austin. Repeat: Art Acevedo is not taking the job in Austin. Acevedo notified Interim City Manager Jes\u00fas Garza Tuesday morning, following a firestorm about his appointment as an assistant city manager over the Austin Police Department (APD). On Tuesday afternoon, he posted a statement on X, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,105,23,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austin","category-cops","category-law","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27781,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27780\/revisions\/27781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}