Government
BY GRACE DICKENS
When video of a former Eanes ISD student brandishing a firearm on campus eventually turned into a multiagency vehicle pursuit Sept. 4, EISD Chief of Police Matthew Greer described the communication situation as “difficult.” With several responding agencies all operating on different radio channels, focus wasn’t just on stopping the perpetrator; officers also had to worry about flipping through radio channels to let the car next to them know the situation, Greer said. “We were going back and forth between Lakeway, notifying our dispatcher what we were doing, and then Travis County to get help from West Lake Hills and Rollingwood,” Greer said. “West Lake Hills was involved in the pursuit with us, so they weren’t able to hear any of this information because they were on a different channel.” Days later on Sept. 10, another incident occurred; this time, an active shooter situation in Zilker Park. The district was not directly notified of the incident by responding agencies in Austin; instead, the district found out from a parent who was concerned about a group of EISD cross-country runners along the nearby Town Lake, Greer said. “Although it wasn’t happening in our district, it affected a lot of our students because it was so close,” Greer said. In both cases, Greer said EISD faced a similar problem: cross-agency coordination in dispatch services. Following the situations in September, officials in EISD and the city of Rollingwood are calling for better local police dispatch coordination. Police dispatch concerns rise for Eanes ISD
The issue
Eanes ISD boundaries
Travis County Sheriff's Office (within EISD) West Lake Hills Police Department Rollingwood Police Department Austin Police Department David sector Austin Police Department Braker sector
Within EISD boundaries, there are five police jurisdictions: West Lake Hills, Rollingwood, Travis County Sheriff’s Office and two Austin Police Department sectors. In practice, this means dis- patchers must monitor several separate channels to understand what’s happening in the district. Additionally, when it comes to dispatch ser- vices, the jurisdictions within EISD are dispatched by three separate agencies. Police services for West Lake Hills and Rolling- wood are dispatched by the Travis County Sher- iff’s Office, or TSCO. Austin Police Department is dispatched out of the city of Austin-owned Combined Transportation, Emergency, and Communications Center, or CTECC, with each sector having its own channel. Meanwhile, Eanes ISD is dispatched out of Lakeway—a move made after TSCO was unable to provide services, Greer said. Although TSCO provides dispatch services to a variety of smaller surrounding entities, in 2023, the agency was flooded with new requests from other school districts creating their own police forces, a Nov. 10 statement from TSCO states. “All of the ISDs in which TCSO formerly had [school resource officers] requested dispatch services for the new police departments they created. Consider how much additional radio traffic is generated when you apply that level of increase to all the other ISDs in our jurisdiction,” the statement said. The city of Rollingwood was also not directly
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360
COLORADO RIVER
MOPAC
BEE CAVES RD.
71
290
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NOTE: THIS MAP ONLY SHOWS JURISDICTION BOUNDARIES WITHIN EISD AND IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. SOURCES: CITIES OF AUSTIN, ROLLINGWOOD AND WEST LAKE HILLS, EANES ISD, TRAVIS COUNTY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
notified of the Sept. 10 incident, Mayor Gavin Massingill said. Only some of Rollingwood’s resi- dents received “shelter in place” warnings; of the warnings they did get, the messaging from APD and Austin ISD was conflicting, Massingill said. The city of Rollingwood has been in commu- nication with city of Austin officials to work out issues experienced in the communication process, Massingill said.
Next steps
west radio channel out of Lakeway Police Department, Greer said, which would allow TSCO dispatch to communicate directly with Lakeway dispatch and reduce delays between agencies in the area. “The door isn’t closed on this, but we have to work together to figure out the funding, and overcome technical obstacles like additional radio channels and other operability requirements that make dispatching for additional agencies impossible for TCSO at this time,” TSCO Sheriff Sally Hernandez said in a statement. CTECC officials did not respond to requests for comment, as of press time.
Moving forward, Greer said he would like to have a meeting with all local stakeholders to discuss solutions. “Ultimately the safest solution is to have agencies within the same geographic area on the same channel,” Greer said in an email. “If that isn’t possible, then dispatchers should be collocated to promote immediate information sharing. Unfortunately the issue is complicated, and implementing a solution may be difficult.” One potential solution floated by Lakeway Chief of Police Glen Koen at a regional school safety event was housing TSCO’s
EISD number of calls
2024-25
54
+66.7%
2025-26*
90
SOURCE: CITY OF LAKEWAY/COMMUNITY IMPACT
*AS OF OCT. 29
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LAKE TRAVIS - WESTLAKE EDITION
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