AUSTIN (KXAN) — On Wednesday, the City of Austin suspended its partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Since the announcement, local groups have shown both support and disapproval of the decision.
Mayor Kirk Watson indicated “recent events” led to the need for a pause, although he didn’t specify in the release which events. He added, “This partnership was an innovative approach to address acute staffing shortages that were years in the making. However, any approach must be in sync with Austin values.”
APD Chief of Police Joseph Chacon said questions from the city council and community led to the decision to suspend the partnership.
“While this news is disappointing, I know that each of you are working hard to keep our community safe and that you will continue this important work,” Chacon wrote in an email to City of Austin employees.
The Austin Police Association said the decision by Interim City Manager Jesús Garza and Mayor Watson to suspend the APD/DPS partnership was “unconscionable.”
“The data presented to the City clearly and unequivocally showed that the presence of DPS made our city safer. This decision is just another in a long line of decisions that demonstrate to the hardworking men and women of the APD and the law-abiding citizens of Austin that public safety is not a priority in this City,” said Thomas Villareal, APA’s president.
However, Austin Justice Coalition said the suspension of Austin’s partnership with DPS was overdue. AJC describes itself as “a community organization that focuses on improving the quality of life for people who are Black, Brown, and poor” on its website.
“The Austin Justice Coalition opposed the deployment of state troopers to Austin from the start, denounced the secretive, rushed and undemocratic deal by Mayor Watson that led to this, predicted both the extreme racially disparate impacts and unaccountable violence that would result from it, and now demands that the City clarify that DPS troopers will never again be deployed to our city’s streets,” said Chas Moore, Executive Director of the Austin Justice Coalition.
Save Austin Now — a political action committee that touts itself as a “citizen’s group dedicated to Austin’s quality of life” and that was behind a push to reinstate Austin’s camping ban — said the suspension comes as the city was facing its “worst police staffing crisis in city history.” According to Save Austin Now, APD has 400 fewer officers than it did two years ago and no labor contract.
Save Austin Now co-founders Matt Mackowiak and Cleo Petricek said the partnership’s suspension would have “immediate and tragic consequences” for public safety.
“This is a victory for police abolitionists and criminals and a major setback for law-abiding citizens and families who only wish to live in a safe city. Austin has roughly 1,400 available officers in a city of 1M people, compared to 1,800 officers just two years ago. The DPS partnership resulted in reduced response times, arrests of violent criminals in high crime areas and traffic enforcement in Austin for the first time in over a year,” Mackowiak and Petricek said in a news statement.
Save Austin Now said the partnership should be reinstated until APD has a four-year labor contract and rapidly improves both recruitment and retention. APD and the city are in the midst of contract negotiations.
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