BY BEN THOMPSON
Public safety push Austin leaders have funded and proposed several safety initiatives around downtown.
More than $1M remains budgeted for those initiatives this year. City Council funded two downtown safety updates in 2024: $1.81M to create the Downtown Area Command that stages medical resources near entertainment districts $275,702 to link police and EMS operations through CASTMED
Staging rapid response vehicles near bars
Street/sidewalk barricades
Reopening Sixth Street to vehicles as default; the street can close to vehicle tra c when police deem necessary
Installing cameras and other security features in entertainment districts
Assigning more personnel on busy weekend nights
Adding new mental health response units
“It’s a three-legged stool. We all are one of those legs. There’s the emergency medicine, public health; there’s the re, patient evacuation; and then the law enforcement, patient safety side,” Parker said. “If any one of those legs is missing, the stool is not that stable. And so I think we are the example for a lot of other cities—that they come down and try to learn from us what we’re doing.”
for those departments is slated to increase over contract terms. City Council will be contending with revenue questions and likely budget cuts this year, including reviews of the programs and sta ng needed to support downtown while maintaining adequate service across the rest of the city. O cials said department data and high-pro le incident responses reinforce the value of the initiatives and training they now have in place.
Permanent pedestrian barricades are now installed along East Sixth Street more than a year after the street was rst reopened with temporary fencing in place.
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