AUSTIN, Texas — A newly released police shooting dashboard from Austin Police Oversight is prompting renewed scrutiny of officer training practices and racial disparities in deadly encounters involving the Austin Police Department.
The dashboard, published Tuesday after more than a year of development, tracks officer-involved shootings from 2018 through 2025, including demographic data, locations, reasons for police encounters and case outcomes.
According to the data, Austin officers were involved in 60 shootings during that period, 36 of which were fatal. Hispanic men accounted for roughly 44% of those killed, while nearly all civilians involved in the shootings were men.
The dashboard also showed that around 70% of the 151 officers involved in the shootings were white, while just under one-quarter were Hispanic. Officers involved had an average age of slightly above 30, and about half had fewer than four years of law enforcement experience.
The findings drew concern from police accountability advocates, including Austin Justice Coalition executive director Peter Hunt, who questioned whether APD is adequately preparing newer officers to avoid using lethal force.
Hunt said the data raises concerns about training policies and whether the department is effectively teaching de-escalation tactics over time.
The dashboard also found that officers used less-lethal weapons, including Tasers and pepper ball launchers, in about 17% of the incidents. Most shootings occurred in north central and northeast Austin, while northwest Austin’s District 6 recorded the fewest.
Brian Withrow said newer officers are often assigned to higher-crime patrol areas, which may help explain why less experienced officers appear more frequently in shootings.
Withrow also cautioned against drawing broad conclusions from the data alone, noting that police presence tends to be concentrated in densely populated and lower-income neighborhoods.
Still, he said public-facing dashboards tracking officer-involved shootings remain uncommon and can help improve accountability, training and public understanding of police use of force.
