Over the past five years, Austin has quietly cut checks in nearly 80 civil lawsuits tied to the Austin Police Department, according to local records. The payouts range from a few thousand dollars to a single multimillion-dollar settlement for a protester badly injured in 2020, all pulled from the city’s Liability Reserve Fund. The result is a strained reserve and a fresh fight over how Austin balances policing costs with the price of legal fallout.
Records And The Running Tab
As reported by FOX 7 Austin, the city has settled about 80 civil lawsuits involving APD officers in the last five years. Individual payouts have ranged from roughly $2,000 up to $8,000,000, pushing total costs past $37 million. According to FOX 7 Austin, every dollar has come from Austin’s Liability Reserve Fund, which recent budget documents show is now falling below city policy levels.
Record Payout From 2020 Protest Injury
The biggest check, $8 million, went to Justin Howell. He was struck in the head by a bean-bag round while recording protests outside Austin police headquarters on May 31, 2020, and suffered a skull fracture and brain injury, according to The Texas Tribune. Those 2020 protests triggered dozens of lawsuits and set off a grand jury investigation that eventually led to criminal indictments for multiple officers.
How Austin Covered The Bill
City attorneys have been tapping the Liability Reserve Fund, a dedicated pool meant to absorb the financial hit from litigation. Staff previously urged city leaders to rebuild that fund to its 14 percent policy target after it slipped in the wake of the pandemic and Winter Storm Uri, according to the Austin Monitor. With the reserve still short, the city now faces a familiar trio of options: refill the fund, cut elsewhere, or let the General Fund shoulder more of the strain.
City Hall’s Warnings And APD’s Shift
City officials told FOX 7 Austin that higher-than-expected claim payouts are driving down the reserve and could keep Austin out of compliance with its own policies until at least 2029 or 2030. In the wake of the protest-related injuries, the department has said it will no longer use bean-bag rounds for crowd control, according to The Texas Tribune.
What It Means For Accountability And The Budget
The settlements may close individual cases, but they leave larger questions hanging over APD’s training, oversight, and accountability, issues that also fed into the 2022 indictments referenced in local coverage. Attorney Jeff Edwards, who has represented protesters, put it bluntly in comments reported by KSAT: “Settlements are not solutions,” he said, arguing that the mounting payouts should push the department toward “serious self-reflection.”
