Austin News

The city of Austin recently released its proposed budget for 2020-21, which includes a reduction in funding for the city's police department's budget as fallout continues across the country in the wake of the homicide of George Floyd.  

In response, the Greater Austin Crime Commission released crime statistics in Austin from 2018 to 2019, data the commission believes show that lowering the staffing levels of the police department might not be such a good idea.

Last year the Austin City Council budgeted roughly 10% of its budget, approximately, $434 million, for the police department, which is nearly 40% of what the city spends on services including libraries, parks and other basic operations.

The Austin Justice Coalition wants $100 million of a $400-million budget cut this year, and other social justice groups are asking council to defund the police.

Cary Roberts, executive director of the Greater Austin Crime Commission, said his organization released last week a comprehensive report dealing with crime in Austin and analyzed 2019 data. The message he thinks the data should send to council and City Manager Spencer Cronk is clear: Don't defund the police.

"We wanted Austin residents to be able to have the information to arrive at their own conclusions regarding whether or not it makes sense to cut 100 police positions particularly when aggravated assaults and individual robberies were up last year," Roberts told the Austin News. "Violent crime and property crime increased significantly. We know that response times are slower for at least the eighth consecutive year. We think the council should consider that you can make smart police reforms possible without putting the community at risk."

He added that  even with the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the city is experiencing a crime wave. Murder is up 64% this year, statutory rape is up 50%, auto theft 35%, building theft 24%, robbery 16%, aggravated assault 14%, arson up 9% and burglary 8%, according to the report.

"I think think the question really has to be, does it make sense to eliminate 100 authorized police positions in a time when crime is spiking and incidentally, cutting 100 cops takes us back to 2015 staffing levels," Roberts said. "Does that make sense in a rapidly growing city?"

The Austin City Council has a choice, next month, Roberts noted, as he addressed the upcoming budget process, adding. "Are they going to make an evidence-based decision or are they going to make a budget decision out of political expediency?"  

Roberts said it is necessary to discuss how to move forward in the wake of recent protests that are asking cities to defund the police or put-in-place public safety reforms. However, he does not believe under-funding or leaving police departments without proper staffing, particularly in Austin, is the way to go.

"I think those are conversations that we need to have," he said. "The Austin Crime Commission is committed to the process that the city manager in Austin has outlined, 're-imagine public safety.' There are always improvements to be made. There are a lot of suggestions that have been made by social justice groups and advocates that are certainly worth considering, including mental health response. 

"But, at the end of the day, we know from two taxpayer-funded studies, one from 2012 and and 2016, and one we paid for in 2015, for a city of Austin's size, we are behind in terms of the number of police officers for the workload that they have. At the end of the day, nobody wants bad cops, we just want more good ones. We think that the data bears that out."

Sticking with a plan to improve policing and working on adequate staffing is a plan that will work according to Roberts.

"Up until two months ago, with the unfortunate murder of George Floyd, we expected the city manager to include in the budget the third year of a four-year staffing plan which would have added 30 additional officers to the force instead of the proposal to subtract 100," he said. "I think the community does understand that based on survey data I've seen, does not support cutting police positions.  

"The chief's monthly report details the last six months of crime statistics, which is alarming. One of the things about defunding is that public safety in the Austin city budget has decreased every year since fiscal year 2014/15 and has decreased 2.9%. That may not seem like much but it adds up to a $31 million decrease in spending. 

"The city council has been trying to balance the needs of a growing city and, as a result, public safety spending in the general fund has decreased nearly 3% in the last five years. The city council has already been allocating money to other programs, but they made a commitment three years ago to a staffing plan recommended by the city manager and the findings of their own consultants."

Not sticking to the staffing plan is something Roberts thinks will hurt Austin, and he is surprised that the council is considering it.

"We are discouraged that they are considering abandoning it," he said. "There is a lot of contemporary data about the correlation between crime rates and police staffing. I don't think that would surprise anybody, but I think some people have forgotten it. For example, I don't think this data is something that could easily be dismissed by social justice groups. A 2018 Princeton study from an Obama-era Department of Justice study on police staffing revealed that each additional officer was associated with 0.11 fewer murders, 0.53 fewer rapes,1.98 fewer robberies and 15.39 fewer property crimes.  

"Also that year, a UCLA study found that a 10 percent increase in police staffing reduces violent crime by 13% and property crime by 7%. There is a lot of information out there if people are willing to consider it when making policy decisions for a city."