Good Friday morning --
As you know, the police staffing crisis in Austin continues to worsen.
We have more than 350 police vacancies and have more than 400 fewer police officers than we had in early 2021 when Defund the Police started.
While we remain deeply frustrated that the City Council refuses to consider the four-year labor contract negotiated in good faith over 13 months by the police union and the previous City Manager, the Austin Police Department (APD) did get some good news a few months ago when the city struck a deal with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to enlist their help to respond to calls in high crime areas and offer traffic enforcement.
From a recent KVUE story:
Before the first round of the partnership ended in May, DPS reported that its troopers assisted APD 1,159 times. DPS troopers made a total of 760 misdemeanor and felony arrests in just over a month, investigated 90 car accidents and seized over 500,000 potentially fatal doses of fentanyl.
After several weeks showing reduced response times and major arrests made, DPS halted the partnership to deal with the end of Title 42 and an expected increase in border crossings.
The City of Austin and DPS announced that DPS will return to aid our city during the worst police staffing crisis in our history starting July 2.
From that KVUE story:
According to a press release, City officials say the deployment strategies for the partnership will differ from before, clarifying that DPS troopers will now be deployed at APD's discretion based on three priorities:
Monitoring roadways with frequent fatal crashes
Focusing on areas with frequent reports of violent crime
Distribution across multiple APD sectors due to the department's staffing shortages
DPS criminal investigators and crime analysts will also support APD in violent crime investigations and efforts to reduce gun violence.
“The partnership with DPS has already proven valuable to reducing crime and shortening response times. This new iteration will ensure we continue that while taking Council direction into account and pivoting the deployment strategy,” APD Police Chief Joseph Chacon said in response to the renewed partnership.
The only thing that could prevent this fortunate development is if City Council somehow blocks DPS from returning, something a handful of council members have suggested.
ACTION ALERT: Email City Council and express your FULL SUPPORT for DPS returning to aid APD in keeping our community safe.
There are two easy ways to do this:
1) Our platform has sample text that you can build from (please make your email your own language) and when you hit send it will go to the Mayor and all City Council members. Click here for this option.
2) This link will allow you to email the entire City Council but you will have to create your own text.
Please support DPS troopers helping fix the mess City Council made!
PROP B LAWSUIT
Save Austin Now and four local business owners are suing the City of Austin for their failure to fully enforce Prop B, despite it passing in May 2021 by a 58%-42% vote. The lawsuit is currently before the 3rd Court of Appeals and we expect a ruling in the next 4-6 weeks. The losing side will likely appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.
If you have specific examples of illegal public camping inside the City of Austin, you can email us photos, video and explanations here. Please provide as full an explanation as possible, including when/where and what happened. Please also include your contact information.
Our lawsuit will take some time and while we have excellent, committed lawyers, this battle will require resources. You can donate to our legal effort here. 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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> PLEASE SUPPORT OUR EFFORTS TO HOLD THE CITY ACCOUNTABLE: You can support Save Austin Now here.
> PLEASE SUPPORT OUR LEGAL EFFORTS: You can support our legal effort to enforce Prop B (camping ban) here.
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** HELP US HOLD CITY HALL ACCOUNTABLE HERE **
SUPPORT OUR WORK
You can support our efforts to hold city leaders accountable for their decisions here. 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.
> 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.