BY BEN THOMPSON
The outlook
A closer look
Under a new contract, Bullock anticipates it’ll still take years until APD is fully staffed. One sign of near- term progress, he said, would be for officer arrivals to outpace outflow. The contract’s price tag also led to review of its effect on strained city finances. Hundreds of millions of dollars over five years is more than other current public safety deals, and would raise APD’s overall budget nearly 23%. The prospect of funding through a future tax rate election was raised, but Broadnax said that likely wouldn’t be triggered by police costs alone. And while still projecting future deficits, staff now say the deal will have “marginal” budget impacts. Proposed contract cost $80M $70M $60M $50M $40M $30M $20M $10M $0M
an issue in the “politically volatile” capital city and could harm officers by presenting false or out-of- context information. “For the game to change in the middle of your career is kind of where you deal with a lot more of the uncertainty, and where it becomes a lot more concerning,” he said. But the city and APA agree Austin can’t keep g-files for now—pending possible future litigation. Some officials have now asked the city to expedite the release of all requested files. Despite statements from city leaders that the contract complies with all new oversight policies, Equity Action Senior Adviser Kathy Mitchell said it may not meet “core requirements” and worries it could open the door for ongoing challenges. “We wrote an ordinance that said you can’t have a contract if it doesn’t do these basic things,” Mitchell said. “It’s in there, yay. But also, in sort of less clear and direct ways, it’s creating pathways to undermine what the ordinance is building later.”
A sticking point in the contract process has been the handling of new police oversight provisions. Council declined to vote on the last deal in part to allow an election on the Austin Police Oversight Act. The measure aimed at transparency, officer investigations and discipline was developed by criminal justice reform group Equity Action, and approved 4-to-1 in May 2023. A competing APA- backed ballot measure was rejected. The act’s rollout has extended since then through the contract process. Equity Action sued Austin over implementation, and a court ruling this summer directed the city to comply with a central requirement: ending the longtime practice of keeping confidential personnel records known as “g-files.” G-file materials, including those related to offi- cer misconduct, can be publicly withheld under state law. While they aren’t used by most Texas law enforcement agencies, Austin’s system has kept them in place. Bullock argues their release is
Also of note
Calling for help
APD data shows overall crime totals dropping off since 2020. Simultaneously, urgent 911 response times have risen by several minutes in the past few years despite fewer calls for service overall. The average response for high-priority calls is above 10 minutes this year. Davis said APD is analyzing staffing to meet Austin’s growing population. APD has scaled back traffic enforcement and nonemergency responses in recent years due to staffing issues.
In 2024, the average police response to priority emergency 911 calls is 10.2 minutes . That’s 34.12% more than in 2020 and above the city’s 9-minute target. The next-most urgent calls now average a 14.7-minute response, up 59.21% from 2020 and above the 11-minute target.
SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN/COMMUNITY IMPACT Fiscal year
SOURCE: AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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