SAVE AUSTIN NOW UPDATE
As you know, the Austin Police Staffing crisis continues to worsen. This has been building since fall 2021, when the Austin City Council defunded our police.
HOW WE GOT HERE
In September 2020, the Austin City Council voted 11-0 to cut $150 million from APD's $450 million budget as part of their 'Reimagining Public Safety' social experiment. No large city in the U.S. cut their police budget by a larger share than Austin did.
Had this not happened, there would be no police staffing crisis.
When they passed that resolution, authored by then Council Member Greg Casar, they also canceled two scheduled cadet classes and delayed the graduation of the current class.
While the funding was restored after the Texas Legislature passed (on a bipartisan basis) a bill to punish cities that defund their police, the damage was done.
Since the defund vote, we have been losing an average of 15 police officers a month to attrition (a city record). We only gain 60-70 officers each year when cadet classes graduate and officers complete 1-2 months of probationary employment.
In the fall of 2021, APD made the excruciating decision to route most calls from 911 to 311 due to a police staffing shortage.
KVUE reported in early February that Austinites are waiting WEEKS on 311 to file a police report, when it used to take minutes through 911.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Here are the facts:
APD is roughly 350 officers down from the where they were when they were defunded. We have roughly 230 open police vacancies.
Because of this staffing crisis, APD has closed specialized units like the Anti-Gang Task Force, the Sex Crimes Unit, and the Traffic Enforcement Unit, among others. Cold cases go unsolved. Experienced detectives are told to serve daily patrol shifts that rookies usually take.
On Friday, 250 officers become eligible for retirement.
The current labor contract between the City of Austin and APD expires March 31, 2023.
While the blame for us being brought this close to the brink should primarily lie with the past Mayor and City Council, which were the most anti-police council in city history, the new Mayor and council face a stark choice:
1) Let the police contract expire and see the staffing crisis rapidly worsen
OR
2) Pass the negotiated four year contract that city negotiators and the Austin Police Association agreed to and announced two weeks ago.
There is no 'one year extension' option. That was a hail mary pass.
On Thursday, an ordinance will be offered that will increase police officer pay by 3%, protect payouts for sick time, and increase police oversight (likely in violation of existing state law).
The spirit of this ordinance, offered by Council Member Ryan Alter and supported by Mayor Kirk Watson, is to make a bad situation less bad.
Retention and recruitment are the most urgent issues facing public safety in Austin. Anything that improves recruitment and retention is something we will support.
But this is not the time for half measures and legally questionable ordinances that will be tied up in court and may be struck down.
Many Austinites want to see increased police oversight.
There is only one surefire way to accomplish this: Pass the four year contract which includes 20 pages of oversight provisions which the city and the police association agreed to.
This May's Prop A, authored by the hard left group Equity Action, violates state law, an opinion shared by Austin Police Association, the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (CLEAT) and the city legal department. It will not lead to increased oversight.
WHAT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEKEND
Street racers overtook four separate locations on Saturday night, violating existing law and threatening themselves, law enforcement and the public.
Two sheriff vehicles were damaged, one police officer was injured, several people caught on fire and there was untold property damage.
Council Member Alison Alter reported that she called 911 to alert them to one location that she witnessed and she had to wait 28 minutes for her 911 call to be answered.
Council Member Alison Alter voted to defund the police in 2020, but she opposed last week's one year extension hail mary and appears to support the four year contract for the reason that it provides certainly and stability and actually increases oversight.
Only one responding vehicle (with only one officer) was available to respond to the S. Lamar / Barton Springs location on Saturday night. He was encircled and likely would have been attacked (and possibly killed) had he not quickly retreated.
This is a consequence of the APD staffing crisis that was created by Steve Adler and Greg Casar and which continues to worsen. We will see more of this unless council acts.
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The staffing crisis will end when the city passes a four year contract and allows multiple cadet classes concurrently over the next 1-2 years to build back our force strength to at least 1,800 (we are not ~1,500 and falling).
There is no other pathway to saving APD and restoring public safety.
Hard left activists continue to drive the agenda at City Hall, pretending to care about oversight when their true objective is to abolish the police (a stated goal of the Austin Justice Coalition, which is the leading organization in Austin undermining police).
HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP
There are two ways you can make your voice heard:
1) On Thursday, you can testify at City Hall (remotely or in person). Both Save Austin Now co-founders will testify in person. The deadline to sign up is noon on Wednesday (testimony will begin after 10am Thursday). You can sign up here (item 61).
2) You can email the entire city council and mayor here.
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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT
There is no other group, apart from the police union, fighting for law enforcement like we do. We must keep fighting.
We continue working to educate as many Austinites as possible.
This requires email marketing, digital ads, robocalls and text messages, and other advocacy efforts.
DONATE NOW: You can financially support us here.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING SAVE AUSTIN NOW!!
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** HELP US HOLD CITY HALL ACCOUNTABLE HERE **
SUPPORT OUR WORK
Donate securely online: You can support our efforts to hold city leaders accountable for their decisions here.
Mail a check: If you wish to send a check to ("Save Austin Now PAC" and mail to 807 Brazos Street Suite 701, Austin, TX 78701).
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As we have said before, we have only begun to fight!
Thank you!
-Matt Mackowiak & Cleo Petricek
Co-founders, Save Austin Now PAC
> Questions? Email Matt (matt@saveaustinnowpac.com).
> Learn more: http://www.SaveAustinNowPAC.com
Will you please support our efforts now?
You may donate to our legal effort here to force full enforcement of Prop B here: https://secure.anedot.com/save-austin-now-pac/save-austin-now-pac-legal-fund-c4cfa533f8ab98c9da232.