Chief Acevedo-A Report Card

When Police Chief Art Acevedo joined the Austin Police Department in July 2007 the department was plagued by excessive spending and allegations of excessive force. The department’s reputation was so tarnished under former chief, Stan Knee they were even being investigated by the ACLU for possible misconduct. Although, to Knee’s credit under his guidance Austin became America’s third safest city according to F.B.I. statistics. However, the reputation of our police department was faced with much criticism. Acevedo has been in charge of the two thousand or so APD officers for a bit more than a year now and it would appear that things have changed under his watch.

There have been many significant changes within the Austin police force over this last year and many of them appear to be for the better. The new police chief has worked rigorously on reducing the departments spending in order to balance a budget which finds itself lacking on a regular basis. Acevedo centralized many operations and implemented better, more efficient overtime policies to reduce spending. Acevedo has worked to close disciplinary loopholes which were commonplace under previous administrations. Under the previous police chief the department was accused of being too lenient or too harsh on offices accused of misconduct. The system was in a sense, arbitrary and has been referred to as “favoritism”. Acevedo has worked hard to create a uniform and fair policy for discipline which the officers can rely upon. There have also been many visible changes under Acevedo’s leadership. The department has enacted new search policies and reformed others which lent themselves to racial-profiling. More recently Acevedo has begun to implement a “cite and release” program, a program which would give the officers the discretion to simply cite a suspect or take them to lockup for processing. This will save officers countless hours of transportation and paperwork. There have also been more visible changes to the police force, such as new uniforms and cars (those new black and whites are super menacing). Although Acevedo approves of the new look these changes were in the works before he came along. Under Acevedo’s guidance the Austin Police Department has been named a “Flagship Agency” by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. This is most certainly good for our police force’s image as well as our cities. When Acevedo was confirmed back in July of 2007 he said it was time to turn a new leaf, or something to that affect. It is clear that the department has most certainly come a long way. Chief Acevedo deserves a passing grade for his efforts.

The Debate-Burka's Perspective

Last week Rick Noriega and John Cornyn engaged in a debate for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Among one of the members on the media panel was Paul Burka. In one of his posts on his blog titled simply, The Cornyn-Noriega Debate, Burka gives a good overall summary of the debate and comments upon both candidates. He mentions that it appeared that the media had given John Cornyn, a Republican the upper hand in the debate. He mentions that one of the panelists asked about Noriega’s role during the whole “Killer D” incident and that it was as Burka puts it “a gimme” for Cornyn because it opened Noriega up to criticism. Burka also mentioned how badly Rick Noriega’s performance was during the previous debate. He does take a couple shots at John Cornyn in his blog post saying that Cornyn is not the most “dynamic politician Texas has produced”.Paul Burka said that the biggest overall surprise that he had during the debate was how much the Democratic Candidate, Rick Noriega had developed as an opponent to Cornyn. Burka says that if Noriega had more time and better financed he may have a chance at the senate seat. Overall, Burka does good job in giving his opinion of the debate went and how well the candidates preformed. He writes a very articulated and well developed post on his blog.

Paul Burka has a very reputable set of credentials under his belt. He graduated from Rice University with his bachelors and continued on to receive his J.D. from The University of Texas. He has been writing for Texas Monthly since 1974 and today is a Senior Executive Editor with the outfit. He has won several awards for his excellence in journalism and is a frequent contributor on many major political and news networks. Although Paul Burka does not come out and say that he is democratic, the overall tone of the article seemed to ring with that of a democrat. Overall, the article puts forth a very nice summary of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses throughout the debate. Burka does a very good job.

Call to Action

In a commentary on Statesman.com titled Texas’ Education System Deserves Better, the author Texas Representative Eddie Rodriguez raises some serious concerns about the education system in Texas. Mr. Rodriguez calls for a change, a major change of how the Texas education system receives its funding. In a very clear and concise argument he lays forth the significant pitfalls that our education system faces. He makes it very clear that the way our education system is funded needs reform. It is disturbing as a college student to think that the cost of my education is going to amount to a small fortune in student loans if I want to attend a public university. The cost to attend the University of Texas has risen 44 percent in the last four years, this hits really close to home. Mr. Rodriguez explains how this outrageous increase happened in his commentary. It was under House Speaker Tom Craddick that public universities were allowed to deregulate their tuition. Unfortunately, not just Texas’ higher education is in need of some serious reform, this problem makes its way to the K12 schools as well. In many school districts where the primary funding comes from property taxes, schools are finding themselves short the precious resources they need in order to operate and educate tomorrow’s leaders. Many of these districts have opted to raise their property taxes the maximum of four percent allowed by law to try to cover their expenses. It is very, very clear that something has to change if we want OUR kids to have a quality education here in Texas. From the commentary you can tell Representative Rodriguez is a democrat. Even if the (D) after his name was cut off it would not be too hard for the reader to infer which side Mr. Rodriguez is playing for. Mr. Rodriguez clearly has a democratic reader in mind as he repeatedly calls for change to the Republican policies enacted under Mr. Craddick. Overall, the commentary is very effective in raising concern. The information laid forth in this commentary is not to be taken lightly as education is one of the most important things in today’s society. The only thing that seems to be missing in Mr. Rodriguez’s commentary is how exactly to fix the problems our education system faces. Perhaps that is for a different venue all together, a call to action is better than nothing.