Austin News

The 10-member Austin City Council unanimously voted to defund the city police department Aug. 13 with Mayor Greg Adler and council members Jimmy Flannigan, Greg Casar and Leslie Pool all supporting the measure.

Although Austin City Council elections are essentially nonpartisan, Flannigan is said to be a progressive and also a Democrat according to Ballotpedia. Flannigan represents District 6 in the Round Rock and Cedar Park north side of town. He is running for reelection in November.   

Flannigan has indicated the money will be redistributed to make the police a more responsive and effective service.

“This could shift more than $90 million from under the control of sworn leadership [officers] to civilian leadership and allow each department to have separate metrics and oversight, creating a way to shift organizational culture and drive outcomes,” Flannigan said, according to the Austin- American Statesman. “The size of these departments is more in line with the size of other city departments, putting them on-par with in terms of organizational influence.”

Approximately $150 million will be cut from the Austin Police Department in the wake of unrest starting with the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in May. That incident was followed by protests, vandalism and looting, and calls for change. 

In April, Austin police shot Mike Ramos, a Hispanic black man who was reportedly unarmed, prompting weeks of anti-police brutality protests. Two protesters were critically injured by lower-lethal rounds fired at their heads by police.

City Council members said in June that they had lost faith in Austin Police Chief Brian Manley after his handling of the protests. Then in July a protester was shot and killed by a passing driver who has not been arrested.

City Council members held a public meeting in which 200 people gave their opinions about cutting the police budget.     

Members of the council intend to redistribute the money to social services they hope will diffuse the situation and crime in the city. They portray it as taking some burden of responsibility off police, although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has portrayed the action as irresponsible.

The full Austin budget totals $4.2 billion, with a general fund of $1.1 billion and a capital budget of $1.2 billion in planned spending.

The budget cuts represent 34% of the police force’s total annual budget of $434 million, the KVUE report noted.

The report said the cuts will eliminate three pending officer cadet classes, reduce officer overtime pay and eliminate vacant positions. Adler said the goal is to prevent crime in the first place.

Approximately $80 million of the cuts will remove responsibility of the Austin Police Department from its 911 call center facility and special investigations unit. An additional $49 million will defund mounted patrol units, traffic enforcement and lake patrols.

In July members of the council made suggestions how the city could shift money away from the police for non-patrol duties. This could allow the police to concentrate on policing and helping to quell violence that has rocked the community by redirecting money to deal with the root causes of crime, such as poverty and homelessness.

Flannigan on July 28 posted a proposal online on the Austin City Council message board outlining how police money should reapportioned. Casar and Pool also posted their ideas. According to the American-Statesman, Flannigan proposed a plan to redo police operations into more separate departments adding independent department heads and civilian managers in the City Manager’s Office.

Flannigan proposed separating from officer responsibility communications and technology, patrol investigations, traffic regulations and the professional standards divisions. He also suggested moving the department out of its current downtown space on Eighth Street, which a an American-Statesman report said is rapidly aging with faulty sprinkler systems and other problems, to a new city space that Flannigan said is under-used. 

"We should expedite the demolition of the APD headquarters by directing the city manager to move all remaining APD staff out of the existing  headquarters building and into other underutilized city facilities," Flannigan wrote in a July post on the council's online message board.  "That property – which has significant value given its downtown location, proximity to the Waterloo Greenway, and future burying of Interstate 35  – should be dedicated to addressing historic economic inequities in the Black community and supporting future Black community economic success."  

According to a report by FOX7 and figures supplied by the Austin Crime Commission, assaults increased 15% in the city from 2018, robbery 6% and property crime and auto theft by 21%. KVUE reported in August that the city is leading the nation in homicide rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.