May 22--Police Chief Art Acevedo has fired a detective for several policy violations, including improperly handling burglary investigations and dishonesty, according to a disciplinary memo released Monday morning.
Detective Richard Munoz, an Austin Police Department officer since 1995, was fired Friday, the memo said. Sgt. Wayne Vincent, president of the Austin Police Association, said Munoz will appeal the termination.
"We're looking forward to getting his side of the story at the hearing," Vincent said.
The memo said that in December, a burglary victim raised concerns about the way Munoz was handling her case and said she left 10 voice mail messages that he did not return. Munoz told officials he had conducted an interrogation of a burglary suspect over the phone but did not record it and did not document other steps he had taken during his investigation, the memo said.
Further investigation into the complaint revealed Munoz improperly handled and documented evidence, failed to follow up with witnesses and did not return multiple calls from victims, the memo said. During this investigation, Munoz said he was "running fast and loose doing investigations," and also provided statements to officials that proved untrue when compared with statements from other officers, witnesses and documents on record, the memo said.
The memo said Munoz has been suspended six times in his career and was fired in 2006 for policy violations related to his honesty, use of force and documentation of incidents. After he was awarded his job back in an administrative hearing, Munoz was suspended again in 2008 for public intoxication, the memo said. Acevedo then warned him that future policy violations would cost him his job, the memo said.
Munoz was one of more than a dozen members of the burglary unit, which was formed last year after an Austin Public Safety Commission meeting where city leaders discussed the low rate of burglaries being solved. At 5 percent, Austin ranked well below the national average of 10 percent.
In addition, the commission discussed how victims reported a low number of follow-up calls when their homes were burglarized when no one was home or when the burglar had fled.
Acevedo said in April that the burglary unit has seen several successes, including a rise in the burglary clearance rate.
Contact Patrick George at 445-3548
Copyright 2012 - Austin American-Statesman, Texas
