Austin News

Matt Mackowiak, co-founder of Save Austin Now, said that with the homicide rate in Austin on the rise, the Police Department under-staffed and morale low, the Texas capital will be a dangerous place this summer.

“Summer months are always the worst for homicides. If you have the money or you have the time, or the ability, I encourage you to leave Austin for the summer,” he said. “You’ll be much safer almost anywhere else in the United States other than Austin. I don't say this with hyperbole in mind.”

Mackowiak made that statement during a panel discussion with City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly. Texas Public Policy Foundation Chief Executive Officer Kevin Roberts moderated the discussion.

Mackenzie Kelly | City of Austin

Mackowiak said Save Austin Now supports public safety issues, affordability, transportation — “core standard living issues that affect every single resident.” Its goal is to educate people, provide opportunities to have their voice heard and over time to put things on the ballot to make Austin somewhat less "weird." 

Kelly said she wants to restore support for the Austin Police Department. The council cut $150 million from the department’s $434 million budget last year, including an immediate reduction of $21 million.

“Well, the defunding of the police is probably top of mind. We took money away from the police budget last year,” she said. “We recently, on Thursday of last week, voted as a council to reinstate the cadet academy. But it was very clear that we weren't going to have any other police academies until this one was tried and true and proven that things have changed, that the direction of what they were trying to accomplish at the academy was different.”

Kelly said the Police Department has a high attrition rate, with approximately 130 at the police department. The city can’t wait to fill those jobs through academies, but the council is opposed to hiring officers now.

Mackowiak said Austin has the same number of police officers as it had in 2008. Fewer cops does not mean fewer crimes, he said.

“Unfortunately, the hard left, that's what they think,” Mackowiak said. “It's worse than that. We can't retain, we can't recruit, can't pay overtime. Our homicide rate this year will probably double our all-time record, which was set last year at 48 homicides. I think we're at 31 as of today.”

He said the council voted 11-0 to cut the police budget, slicing $20 million from it, and retaining the authority to remove the rest of it “whenever they felt like it, which they've started doing,” Mackowiak said.

“And the consequences have been profound. All of our violent crime stats are up,” Mackowiak said. “It's that doesn't mean that Austin is as dangerous as New York or Los Angeles. And (Mayor) Steve Adler wants to pretend that because we're safer than New York or Los Angeles, everything's fine. Everything's not fine. Response rates are through the roof.”

“MacKenzie's been on the front lines of this supporting our law enforcement,” he said. “She's the only person that goes and visits police officers when they're in a hospital in the hospital. It's astounding. We have members of the City Council who are anti-police."

“And I know I'm being really blunt here with my language, but I want to wake everyone up to the reality, the situation,” Mackowiak said. “Our mayor pro tem is as negative towards our police department as any person in elected office in the country, and that's why she abstained on reinstating the cadet class. I'll make one last point. This cadet class is the most diverse in the history of our city. One hundred of them went through that cadet class. Every single one of them should be a police officer in our city, making our city safer because the council dithered for however long it was three or four months playing games.”

He said 26 departed for jobs to pay their bills, finding work wherever they could.

“Twenty-six of them should be police officers today. And we don't even know when the next cadet class will be,” Mackowiak said. “So public safety is going to be a major, major focus on affordability, transportation. We'll look at other issues in the future, but we've got to make our city safe again. Having been one step one, we've got to make sure our city has sufficient staffing levels at the police department. Morale is low. The people in specialized units, in daily patrols, it's an absolute disaster. It's going to get worse before it gets better, unfortunately.”

Roberts said it’s easy to believe there is little hope for the future, but that is not the case. He said Kelly is a living example of that.

“I think that if any of us think about the math there, we would say, oh, man, all is lost,” Roberts said. “But in fact, just your election to the council is progress.”