Austin Police Chief Brian Manley To Step Down

AUSTIN, TX — Austin Police Chief Brian Manley will be retiring next month in capping a 30-year career, he announced Friday.

During a news conference, Manley did not detail what his next steps might be. "I honestly don't know what is next for me," Manley said during a news conference, calling the move a "leap of faith" as he prepares to enter retirement. "Austin is my home, and I don't intend to leave the Austin area. The role of the police chief is one that is so demanding that I felt, if I'm actively considering what is next for me, what I want to do next with my life, I'm likely not giving all of myself to the job."

The departure comes less than three years since he was named chief of police after having spent many years as assistant chief to Art Acevedo, who left to take the top cop's role in Houston. Manley served as interim chief for about 18 months after Acevedo's departure before assuming the chief's reins in June 2018.

His retirement announcement comes days after marking his 30th year with the local force, with a departure date set for March 28. His imminent departure comes against a backdrop of sweeping changes swirling around the police department — not all voluntary — and growing calls for police reform.

"I will forever remember the amazing opportunities this career has afforded me, whether assisting life-saving measures that resulted in reviving a heart attack victim, years of child abuse investigations that led to children being removed from harmful or abusive conditions, my time in homicide seeking justice for families who had lost loved ones to violence, and too many others to list here," Manley previously wrote the city manager in a memo.

By early evening, Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a statement thanking Manley for his service while alluding to the changing nature of policing amid greater public scrutiny that has shaded the timing of Manley's departure.

"Policing is at a national crossroads, and this has been an extraordinary time to lead a department as it begins a very important conversation," Adler said. "I thank Chief Manley for having taken Austin to this pivotal point and congratulate him on his retirement."

Adler ticked off some of Manley's career highlights: "Throughout Chief Manley’s leadership, Austin has been one of the safest, large cities in the country. He oversaw a $422 million budget, the largest per resident among big cities in Texas. I personally witnessed up-close his inspiring leadership on the ground during the 2018 Austin serial bombings. We are grateful for Chief Manley's 30 years of public service in his hometown."

Related story: Top Cop Job Finalist, Manley Stages Public Forum Monday, May 7

Austin was terrorized by a series of bombings triggered via explosive parcels — killing two and injuring several others — as Manley served as interim police chief following Acevedo's departure. The case went unsolved for weeks until the mastermind behind the crime spree discharged one of his own bombs on himself as police boxed him in on an Austin roadway.

Throughout that ordeal, Manley emerged as a much-needed, calming presence in providing updates to the public on the status of the case — earning high marks from the public along the way. The goodwill would evaporate two years later after officers fired painful beanbag projectiles into crowds of protesters calling for police reform, seriously injuring a handful of demonstrators and hurting others less seriously.

By then the police chief, Manley took the brunt of the ensuing backlash. During the part of a subsequent city council hearing allowing for public comment, residents overwhelmingly lambasted the chief as many suggested the violent, crowd-dispersing tactics were an offshoot of a Manley-led police department culture heavy on enforcement. Most of the hundreds of residents signing up to speak during an hourslong public comment period had harsh criticism for the chief — in various degrees of indignation, from the diplomatic to the pejorative-ridden — during a pandemic-era virtual council meeting, Manley was compelled to attend while assimilating the collective critique.

Many of those residents — and seven of 11 city council members ultimately voicing a "no confidence" vote — called for Manley's resignation or for the city manager to demote him. What followed was a $21 million reallocation of funds from the police budget and a move to transfer some functions traditionally handled by police — such as dealing with the homeless and those in the throes of mental crises — to social service agencies seen as better trained to deal with such tasks.

Manley had fallen out of favor with many after protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died after a policeman placed a knee on his neck for several minutes upon the pavement. After being grilled by Austin City Council members in the aftermath, Manley later announced such projectiles would no longer be used for crowd control purposes.

But the use of such projectiles would continue as a tactic to neutralize suspects, the chief noted at the time while describing the effectiveness of such non-lethal weapons. Those calling for his resignation were not appeased, and calls mounted for him to step down.

Manley's retirement announcement comes as he celebrated his 30th anniversary with the Austin Police Department, he noted during the news conference. As he spoke to reporters, Manley recalled having his father pin his badge on him in February 1991. He also recalled the crucible serial bombings case that emerged just as he launched his bid for the chief's job as he served as interim chief following his predecessor's departure for Houston.

City Manager Spencer Cronk said he plans to launch a national search for Manley's successor after appointing an interim chief early in early March whose stint would require city council approval.

Despite his otherwise shining hour during the serial bombings ordeal as he pursued the top cop job, Manley's sterling veneer began to crack in the eyes of some observers. After a parcel bomb exploded in the porch of a home along the 1100 block of Haverford Dr. in Northeast Austin, Manley during a news conference voiced initial suspicions the incident could be drug-related based on previous police response to the neighborhood.

Ultimately, it was found that the African American victim who died in the blast was not involved in the drug trade. Anthony S. House, a 39-year-old family man, was the first to die in the terror campaign after handling a parcel that was, unbeknownst to him, lethal. Facing backlash from the African American community for his early theory, Manley later apologized.

Chas Moore, the head of the Austin Justice Coalition group that spearheaded last year's protests for police reform, reacted to Manley's imminent departure as welcome news.

"Brian Manley's resignation was long overdue," he wrote. "His tenure as chief of police was a reflection of a different time and place in regards to how communities across the nation view policing and public safety. Today is a new day. We are demanding and expecting something much more - a transformed and wholly new approach to public safety."

Those calling for police reform in Austin were already galvanized one month before the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis following the death of Michael Ramos in Austin following a brief encounter with police. In calling the police, a caller claimed Ramos was brandishing a weapon while inside his vehicle parked outside an Austin apartment complex.

When police arrived, Ramos lifted his shirt to show police he had no gun in his waistband, only to be fired upon with non-lethal beanbag projectiles. Ramos crumbled in pain as he recoiled inside his vehicle before driving off, prompting an officer to shoot at the vehicle. Ramos was killed, and police found no weapon after searching his car and the surrounding area.

Since the man's death last year, Moore has accompanied Ramos's mother at intermittently staged news conferences as she calls for justice for her only child. At one such presentation, she told Patch she continues to seek police accountability over the way police reacted in confronting her son — a knee-jerk combative approach that Moore paints as an extension of a police culture inherent to the local force.

At a subsequent news conference after that fatal shooting, Manley defended the officer firing the fatal rounds by reminding that the caller said he had a gun. Moore and other police watchdogs latched on to Manley's defense in noting how easily the claim by the caller was believed before police personally assessed the situation.

"Brian Manley was a bottleneck in the reimaging public safety process," Moore said in his statement. "It is my hope that we can move forward with the work of transforming the institutions that uphold racism and inequity through violence on our communities. This resignation is no consolation for the families who lost lives under Manley's leadership but it is a step in the right direction."

Moore expressed hopes for new leadership intent on the dispensation of equal justice: "This has just become an opportunity for the City of Austin to take a bold and radical stance," Moore said. "We call on the City of Austin to uphold its commitment to racial, class, and gender equity and bring community leaders into the process of filling this role."

Asked by a reporter to single out the most impactful part of his career, Manley pointed to his stint in the child abuse division. "I wholeheartedly believe it when I look at my 30 years and I try to define that moment or that time where I feel I really made the greatest difference and gave back and really exemplified that service would be my years in the child abuse division as both an investigator and a supervisor," he said. "Because at the end of the day, you are dealing with children that are in horrible circumstances by no fault of their own, and you are that person that can make a difference. So I know in the years that I spent there that in some small way I was able to play a role in helping those children."