{"id":129741,"date":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/129741\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:15:08","slug":"city-of-austin-settles-80-civil-lawsuits-involving-apd-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/129741\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Austin settles 80 civil lawsuits involving APD officers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/jezxot8lt8v45ag6.jpg\" alt=\"City of Austin settles lawsuits involving APD officers\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Records reveal the city of Austin has paid millions in police-related lawsuits over the past five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Some of the largest payouts stemmed from APD\u2019s response to the 2020 George Floyd protests.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Records show the city has settled almost 80 civil lawsuits involving Austin police officers in the past five years. Those settlements range from $2,000 to $8 million, the largest ever paid by the city in an excessive force case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">That record-breaking settlement went to Justin Howell, who was critically injured during the 2020 George Floyd protests. Howell was hit in the head by a police bean bag round, leaving him with a skull fracture, brain damage, and in a coma.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;Less lethal munitions are only less lethal by technicality,&#8221; Justin Howell\u2019s brother, Josh Howell, told FOX 7 in June 2020.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ycqy3uyds2xeo8cg.jpeg\" alt=\"Brother of Justin Howell speaks out on use of less-lethal munitions\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Howell is one of at least seven protesters who received settlements tied to APD\u2019s response to the 2020 demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;When the people who are supposed to protect you are the ones who hurt you, and they treat you like an enemy of war, the damage is long-lasting and even borders on permanent,&#8221; Attorney Jeff Edwards, representing many 2020 protesters, told FOX 7 in October 2020.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">APD has since vowed to stop using the bean bag rounds.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">In total, the city has paid more than $37 million in police-related lawsuit settlements over the past five years, including cases involving excessive force, wrongful death, and dozens of car wrecks.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">&#8220;Settlements are not solutions, but what settlements do is offer an opportunity to the city and its policymakers to reflect on what they have been doing,&#8221; Edwards told FOX 7 in May 2025.<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">The money comes from the city\u2019s liability reserve fund, which city budget documents show is running low.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-6c8e215c=\"\">Officials said higher-than-expected claim payouts are the reason, and the city may be out of compliance with its own policy through at least 2029 or 2030.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin&#8217;s Meredith Aldis<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/series\/crimewatch\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CrimeWatch<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/travis-county\/austin\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-6c8e215c=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Records reveal the city of Austin has paid millions in police-related lawsuits over the past&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1046,20826,223,1726,394,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-129741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-crime-publicsafety","12":"tag-crimewatch","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-series","15":"tag-travis-county","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}