Two Austin police officers, a lieutenant and a patrol officer, were suspended for three days in August and September for neglecting their duties, according to city officials.

Lt. Rene Phan served a three-day suspension without pay on Aug. 31, Sept. 5 and Sept. 6. Officer April Kline was suspended without pay from August 30 to Sept. 1.

“Officer Kline was disciplined for being outside of her assigned sector during her shift, being unable to respond to potential emergencies, and not working a full day for a full day’s pay,” city Human Resources Director Tricia Wiechmann said in a letter responding to a Herald request for information. “Lt. Phan was disciplined for using poor judgment in condoning conduct by another officer that rendered that employee unable to perform assigned duties.”

Wiechmann said in her letter that both officers were told that reoccurrence of their misconduct could result in further discipline.

Police Chief Brian Krueger declined to comment on the department’s handling of the situation. He would not comment on the length of time Kline was outside of her assigned sector but said officers’ assigned sectors change on a daily basis. Krueger also declined to comment on the frequency of such discipline against officers.

Mayor Tom Stiehm declined to comment on the incident that led to the disciplinary action. He deferred comment to the city attorney or city Human Resources Department. “I’m not going to comment,” Stiehm said. “There are a lot of rumors going around that are very inaccurate.”

Stiehm said disciplinary action against officers is relatively routine.

“I think the police department gets complaints a lot,” he said. “Some are founded and some are unfounded.”

Neither police officer responded to multiple attempts to obtain comment.