ThinkCivics News
Join ThinkCivics+
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Health
  • US News
  • Faith
  • Science & Tech
  • World News
Join ThinkCivics+
No Result
View All Result
ThinkCivics News
Join TC+
Home Culture & Society

Defunding disaster: Austin Police no longer to responding to ‘non-life threatening’ 911 calls

Just the News by Just the News
October 2, 2021
in Culture & Society
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
0
Defunding disaster: Austin Police no longer to responding to ‘non-life threatening’ 911 calls

The Austin Police Department is warning it won’t be responding to non-life threatening 911 calls.

Starting Friday, Austin’s sworn police officers will no longer be responding in person to non-emergency calls because of severe staffing shortages, APD announced.

The announcement comes after the Harris County Sheriff’s Deputies Organization in Houston warned residents that if they were “robbed, raped or shot” to “hold their breath and pray” because they might not have the personnel to respond.

The Austin no-response announcement includes vehicle collisions with no injuries and burglaries no longer in progress or where the suspect has fled the scene. Instead of calling 911, residents are being told to call 311 to file a non-emergency police report.

An APD spokesperson told Fox News that while a sworn police officer might not respond in person, a civilian officer, like a crime scene technician, might.

The department “regularly reviews response policies and procedures to ensure APD prioritizes calls with an immediate threat to life or property over non-emergency calls for service,” she said.

The staffing shortages and inability to respond to non-life threatening 911 calls is a direct result of the Austin City Council’s defunding of the APD last year, cutting $150 million of its budget, and other changes that were implemented affecting how the department operates.

“As a result of a recent review of APD’s patrol COVID mitigation protocols initiated in May 2020, recent staffing challenges and aligning with the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force patrol response recommendations, APD will change call routing and response for non-emergency calls for service effective October 1, 2021,” she said.

Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday told Fox News that APD hasn’t been able to hire new officers because it hasn’t been able to have a police academy for nearly two years. As a result, there aren’t enough patrol officers to respond to non-emergency calls.

“Probably about 95% of the time our shifts don’t meet minimum staffing … and that is the reason they’ve started cutting back on what types of calls are answered,” Casaday said. “It’s not optimal. It’s not providing a quality service to the community. But the community also needs to understand that we’re under a dire staffing crisis.”

After the City Council cut funding last year, by July, response times to 911 calls were 20-30 minutes longer on average, and the homicide rate is at a level that “we’ve never really seen here before,” interim chief Joseph Chacon said at the time. Cutting APD funds by $150 million resulted in canceling multiple cadet classes and disbanding multiple units responsible for responding to DWIs, domestic violence calls, stalking, and criminal interdiction.

The APD has been losing 15 to 20 officers a month, with many quitting and retiring and not enough new recruits to replace them. The department has projected 235 vacancies by May 2022, and 340 vacancies by May 2023.

While the APD has recently begun to resume cadet classes, it will take a while to get new officers on the streets. The city is paying more than $10,000 per day, with a maximum of $580,000 per year, to Joyce James Consulting to provide an “anti-racism” Critical Race Theory-based curriculum for a “reimagining public safety campaign.”

While the Houston sheriff’s organization sued Harris County over a lack of funding and noncompliance with regulations, a bipartisan activist group, Save Austin Now, took another approach. It initiated its second successful ballot initiative this year to allow voters to restore police funding.

“Austin doesn’t feel as safe recently. Because it isn’t,” the group argued as part of its campaign. “We’ve seen a series of city policy decisions over the last two years that have led to a surge in both violent crime and property crime against Austinites. A 300% increase in murders this year. A double-digit increase in property crimes such as burglaries and car jackings.”

“As Austin’s crime rate has soared, the federal government has taken note of it and sent in resources to help stabilize the chaos,” it adds. “But we cannot rely on the federal government’s Operation Undaunted to provide us with the local resources we’ll need to fight this trend: We’ll have to do it ourselves.”

Their petition received the required number of votes and its proposed public safety law will be on the November ballot. Among other things, it includes adding officers to APD according to the nationally recognized “Safe City Standard,” which stipulates two police officers hired for every 1,000 citizens.

In addition to the proposed law on the ballot in Austin this November, the state legislature earlier this year passed a law to prevent cities from defunding their police departments. The law, which went into effect Sept. 1, blocks state funds from going to local governments that defund their police departments.

This article was originally published by Just the News. Read the original article.

Just the News

JusttheNews.com is committed to just reporting facts from journalists with a long record of public trust and excellence. In an era where opinion and supposition are too often substituted for fact and where journalists rush to get things first and hope their stories are correct, JusttheNews.com tries to stand out by returning to the bedrock promise of getting news first, but first getting it right. We try to deliver exclusive news you can trust.

justthenews.com/
Tags: From the StatesNationpoliceTexas
<

Related Posts

Nonprofit organization exposed for  secretly pushing gender ideology on your young children: report

Nonprofit organization exposed for secretly pushing gender ideology on your young children: report

August 11, 2022
‘Slap in the face’: Pro-life Americans urged to boycott this major retailer

‘Slap in the face’: Pro-life Americans urged to boycott this major retailer

August 10, 2022

Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten Claims Conservatives The Enemy Of Educators

August 10, 2022

Watch: School board member admits to there being a ‘woke’ sleeper cell working with school districts

August 8, 2022
Load More
Next Post
How Can Houses Be Unaffordable And Booming?

How Can Houses Be Unaffordable And Booming?

Congressman Owens pushes back during House hearing, ‘We have a crisis of black fatherhood’

Congressman Owens pushes back during House hearing, ‘We have a crisis of black fatherhood’

Kamala’s Secret Trip: Reporters Banned From Covering Departure

Kamala's Secret Trip: Reporters Banned From Covering Departure

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

  • CDC Admits Scary Truths About Vaccine

    CDC Admits Scary Truths About Vaccine

    3 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Doorbell camera catches deliveryman’s unfiltered response to an Anti-Biden doormat and it’s perfect

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • New Details About the Mar-a-Lago Raid Are Truly Stunning, If True

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • LEAKED: Items Taken in Trump Raid Revealed

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Get her!’: Woman brings traffic to a halt starting a fight, then tries running away before eating pavement

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

‘Preserve Your Documents’: McCarthy Threatens AG Merrick Garland With Investigation After FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home

by The Political Insider
August 10, 2022
0
‘Preserve Your Documents’: McCarthy Threatens AG Merrick Garland With Investigation After FBI Raid Of Trump’s Home
National Security

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, expressing frustration with yesterday’s FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, sent a...

Read more

‘Civil War’ trending on Twitter after FBI raids Trump’s Mar-A-Lago

by ThinkCivics Newswire
August 9, 2022
0
National Security

FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla. on Monday night. Among the wide ranging reactions from...

Read more

‘Some Third World Bulls***’ – Dan Bongino Goes Ballistic On Fox News Over FBI Raid of Trump’s Home

by The Political Insider
August 9, 2022
0
‘Some Third World Bulls***’ – Dan Bongino Goes Ballistic On Fox News Over FBI Raid of Trump’s Home
National Security

Fox News weekend host Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, unleashed his anger over the FBI raid of former...

Read more

‘What Are Y’all Doing?’: Cruz Scorches FBI Director for Targeting Patriotic Symbols

by ThinkCivics Newswire
August 4, 2022
0
‘What Are Y’all Doing?’: Cruz Scorches FBI Director for Targeting Patriotic Symbols
National Security

In Thursday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz took Wray to task...

Read more
Joe Biden Accidentally Stumbles Upon the Truth About the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’
Economy

Joe Biden Accidentally Stumbles Upon the Truth About the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’

by RedState
August 10, 2022
0

Perhaps because they know kitchen table issues like the economy and inflation are typically the top priorities for voters come...

Read more
The 50 Most Radical Policies In ‘Inflation Reduction’ Act
Economy

The 50 Most Radical Policies In ‘Inflation Reduction’ Act

by ThinkCivics News Staff
August 8, 2022
0

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) has laid out the 50 most radical policies in the Inflation Reduction Act. Banks, the chairman...

Read more
Here’s the Truth About What ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Will Do
Economy

Here’s the Truth About What ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Will Do

by The Daily Signal
August 7, 2022
0

As Senate Democrats achieve their goal of jamming  through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, reality is becoming clear: The bill...

Read more
Sen. Kennedy Speaks for All of Us as He Takes Apart Dems for Passing Manchin-Schumer Bill
Economy

Sen. Kennedy Speaks for All of Us as He Takes Apart Dems for Passing Manchin-Schumer Bill

by RedState
August 7, 2022
0

It’s hard to believe that the Democrats passed a huge tax and spend bill in the middle of a recession....

Read more
Facebook Twitter RSS

Brilliantly

SAFE!

thinkcivics.com

Content & Links

Verified by Sur.ly

2022

Recent News

  • World Economic Forum Calls For Merging Of Human And AI Intel To Censor “Hate Speech” & “Misinformation”
  • ‘You done lost your mind’: Porch pirate learns what happens when you try stealing from a gun owner
  • LEAKED: Items Taken in Trump Raid Revealed

Category

  • Culture & Society
  • Economy
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Elections
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Faith
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • Military
  • National Security
  • Politics
  • Science & Tech
  • US News
  • Videos
  • World News

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Cart
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Join
  • Contribute

© 2022 ThinkCivics Media. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.