Police Officer Suspended After Lying About Training Attendance

AUSTIN, TX -- The Austin Police Department has indefinitely suspended a female officer after she allegedly lied about attending a required training in November in 2019.

According to KXAN, Officer Christina Branscum was scheduled to participate in a mandatory 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team Training. Branscum alleged wrote her name on the TCOLE sign-in roster, considered a governmental record, every day even though she had missed one day of training and was late more than once.

“Officer Branscum was dishonest with her immediate supervisor (both verbally and in her written memorandum) when he inquired about accounting for her time and was also dishonest in allowing him to submit her time sheet that she knew contained false information (that she attended all 40 hours of the CIT training),” said APD Chief Brian Manley, in a memo.

Branscum initially told the department she had attended every day and then changed her story throughout the investigation. She clarified she had been late several days and eventually admitted to missing one full day and half of another.

According to a disciplinary memo, Branscum was suspended after an internal investigation found she has violated four sections of the Austin Police Department Code: a responsibility to know and comply, honesty, training procedures, and neglect of duty.

Once the internal investigation was completed, the department made a criminal referral to the Special Investigations Unit. The Travis County District Attorney’s Office chose not to pursue charges of tampering with a governmental record.

Branscum has the right to appeal the decision within 10 days of its filing.