that path. But as I rose professionally through the ranks, I saw the doors open up for me and there were opportunities that I didn’t think were present. And as it turned out, I had a few good ideas that I was able to put pen to paper on and apply some of these ideas that I had. I really honed in on my leadership style and my skills. Trust me, this is trial and error process. I screwed up plenty of times and learned from my mistakes and learned from good leaders and very good police leaders whom I have had. But I also learned from leaders outside of the police profession in looking at what some of my friends — now judges — have done who were law school students when we were hanging out back in the day and are now attorneys. I think of one good example, the Honorable Mario White. We were friends back in the day when he was in law school and I was this young pup officer. We would have these discussions and debates on criminal law. And he would go on to become a state public defender and I would rise to become the sergeant of the gang unit and we would still have healthy, robust discussions and we watched our careers grow and develop. And he is now sitting on the bench now and I am police chief. And we’re still having those conversations.”

Austin had a “well-balanced education” during his MPD career, serving on the Central District Community Policing Team and running the gang unit. By 2021, Austin was ready for the next level and applied for and was hired as the city of Monona’s police chief.

Austin takes a bigger picture of Monona’s demographics than census data alone. He also feels that the police force should also reflect the customers, business owners and people passing through Monona. And while he values the people who have had law enforcement or military experience, Austin wants to make sure that the representation is broader, which leads to good decision-making.

“Just as you speak on the advantages of living in diverse communities is how you learn about different cultures, you learn about differences and you grow to have a better understanding and appreciating of differences, so true can be said about diversity in the workforce,” Austin said. “Those are people you are going to go on calls with. Those are people you are going to sit down and have a quick drink with and debrief with. And you are going to learn a lot about that person and you’re going to learn a lot about that demographic. You’re going to learn about that culture all in-house if you have a diverse workforce. That will just help us become a better police agency in which we can continue to our goal and to strive to provide high-quality police services for our community.”

Austin is also keenly aware of how different factors on the job may unintentionally bring forth unconscious bias or implicit bias without the officer even being aware that is happening. Austin wants to make sure that the everyday work — and exposure — of being a law enforcement officer doesn’t lead to unconscious bias. He gave as an example the daily logs of significant service calls from the day that used gender and racial identifiers.

“I realized that those emails and the repeated identifiers of those emails was making an impact on how I viewed the world, especially at work because often times, when we get that list, it would be ‘male Black suspect, female Black suspect, male Hispanic suspect,’” Austin said. “Yes there are male white suspects who commit crimes that are listed on there. But it seemed to be — and through no fault of MPD — that the reports indicated suspects of color, especially some of the weapons violation reports, the shots fired or the person with the gun, the things that would stand the hair on the top of your neck up if you are out and about because that is what kills police officers mostly. Reading those day in and day out and not realizing it originally that you were training your brain to think a certain way or associate names or races and indicators in a certain way after repeated day-in and day-out decades or reviewing that information had an impact. And so there is a cure behind that. And the cure is acknowledgement, acknowledging that this might have an impact on you, that you need to make sure that you check that at the door. Don’t think you are immune to it. Even I, as a person of color, wasn’t immune to it.”

Austin is also aware of how different types of traffic stops may impact different communities disproportionately. While he emphasized the importance of wearing seat belts and how he has witnessed how they save lives in auto crashes, he doesn’t want his officers using seat belt usagbe as the primary reason they are making a traffic stop.

“I think there is some data that suggests those who — at least in our region and Dane County — are stopped for seat belt violations are disproportionately people of color according to the population statistics,” Austin said. “But I know just culturally, that is something that I struggle with because I have friends and family who I am constantly hounding to wear their seat belts. And there are Brown and Black persons who I am encouraging to wear their seat belts. To me, that is something that I have always been encouraged to do in my upbringing. But I have cousins, aunts and uncles who I remember vividly that they didn’t wear the old lap belts back in the day. That wasn’t a thing in the 1970s and 1980s. And so, I don’t want to speak with a broad stroke. I just know based on shared conversations with some of my friends and family members of color that culturally, we need to work on wearing our seat belts more in the communities of color.”

Austin would rather use the force’s limited resources on moving and equipment violations that could lead to the injury or death of other drivers.

“Hazardous driving behavior is any behavior that is likely to cause a crash and therefore create a harm or injury as a result of crashing based on their behavior,” Austin said. “So that is speeding, deviating from a lane, and red signal violation. However, some equipment violations do also apply. I don’t want to exclude everything. If your headlights are out at night, that’s a hazardous violation. If your taillights are out at night, that’s a hazardous violation. It’s not necessarily a seat belt violation. That is not going to, in my opinion, kill anyone else. But your reckless driving behavior does increase that risk for others on the road and yourself. If an officer stops someone for speeding and oh by the way, they are also not wearing their seat belt, then it is appropriate to address that, but not as a primary officer stop, which police are lawfully able to do. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.”

Monona Police Chief Brian Chaney Austin brings an important equity and inclusion lens to his department. Austin understands that it is the environment in which people find themselves that often influences their behavior regardless of their racial, gene=der and other backgrounds. And by creating a more diverse force and effecting policies that take into account their impact on the population they serve, just maybe Austin can help shape the attitudes of people towards the Monona Police Department, which will make the department’s work easier. And then perhaps Monona will become safer in the eyes of all people who live, work, play and pass through the city of Monona.