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Austin residents should demand their money back from APD. I just saw the budget for my city in a local paper, and public safety was about 60% of it.
They should at least ask for a refund of 60% of their property taxes so they can go hire private security.
Then what happens if the cops don't come out for a car accident? You just sort it out with insurance?
They “encourage” citizens to simply exchange insurance information. Which, much of the time, is exactly how it goes … up until the moment there’s disagreement over whom is at fault. Things tend to get ugly real quick when that happens.
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.
Yea when you "defund" $150 million that is going to have an impact.
But that money that they took from the officers is being well spent.
Quote:
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.”
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.
But . . . but . . . systemic racism! White supremacy! Defund the police to end the war on Communities of Color!
Sorry, Austin, you voted for this, you got it. Now you get to live with it. (Or not, thanks to the increasing murder rate.) Next time, while you're waiting the extra half-hour for the police to show up to save you from being murdered, try thinking logically instead of going with the emotional knee-jerk response.
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.
Hard to tell what's going on.
Could be the cops don't have the manpower. Could be the cops are punishing the population in an attempt to restore funding.
I wouldn't want to be a cop in Austin.
Ummm. You do realize they have a staffing shortage and are trying to limit COVID exposure for their officers, right?
It’s terrible but what else can they do?
There really isn't much else that the police themselves can do. But there's a whole lot that the Austin City Council can do. Starting with, reinstituting their cut funding.
Ummm. You do realize they have a staffing shortage and are trying to limit COVID exposure for their officers, right?
It’s terrible but what else can they do?
And the $150 Million the City Council defunded from them had nothing to do with it...Okay
As to what they could do? Perhaps they could put back the funding and stop paying consulting firms to give them some "reimagined" CRT policies.
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