Austin ‘moving in the wrong direction’ with police short hundreds of officers as crime rises

[Kamaji]

Austin ‘moving in the wrong direction’ with police short hundreds of officers as crime rises

By Taylor Penley, Fox News
August 21, 2023

Austin, Texas, residents are feeling the aftershocks of the “defund the police” movement as staff shortages reportedly are leaving 911 callers on hold and crime continues to spiral out of control.

Thomas Villarreal, president of the Austin Police Association, blamed the city council for neglecting local law enforcement, telling “Fox & Friends” on Monday that the alleged missteps have concocted a larger problem.

“We just continue to have a city council that doesn’t show its police officers that [it] cares about them,” he said.

“Back in December 2017, we had a city council vote down a police contract for the first time in the history of negotiating contracts. And, you know, we pushed forward to 2018, tried to get back under contract. Our city decided to go through what they called reimagining police oversight. And then, you know, we got back under contract.”

That was before the summer 2020 riots that followed the death of George Floyd, Villarreal said, noting that 20 officers were then indicted for “doing their jobs” during the chaos.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/08/21/austin-moving-in-the-wrong-direction-with-police-short-hundreds-of-officers-as-crime-rises/

[Kamaji]

Eventually, a town gets what it voted for.  Too bad, so sad.  Meh.

[PeteS in CA]

What person in law enforcement would try to get a job in a city whose city council members have painted targets on the backs of the city's police officers?

[berdie]

What person in law enforcement would try to get a job in a city whose city council members have painted targets on the backs of the city's police officers?

 A college town at that. With a large homeless population.

What ever...keep Austin weirder than it is. (Disclaimer: I used to love Austin)