In the wake of the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the resulting protests and riots, many blue cities across America decided to slash the budgets of their police departments, buoyed in doing so by “Defund the Police” activists. Now, the lack of police is starting to bite back, with some such cities facing the consequences of having cut police budgets and now not having enough officers to respond promptly to complaints of criminality.
One such city is Austin, Texas. The City Council of that blue city voted in 2020 to slash the police budget by $150 million. Now it is struggling with lengthy 911 response times and terrible police staffing shortages that have seriously curtailed the city’s ability to respond to crime reports in a timely manner, if at all.
About $20 million of the 2020 cuts came from slashing funding for cadet classes, thus limiting the future number of officers. Another $80 million in cuts came from moving functions like forensic sciences and victims’ services from the aegis of the department to other, non-police parts of the city budget. The remaining $50 million in cuts reallocated police funding dollars to a “Reimagine Safety Fund.” That fund redirected former police funding toward “alternative forms of public safety and community support through the yearlong reimagining process.”
Gov. Abbott of Texas sounded off on the Austin City Council’s vote in a statement at the time, saying, “Austin’s decision puts the brave men and women of the Austin Police Department and their families at greater risk, and paves the way for lawlessness.” Continuing, Gov. Abbott added, “Public safety is job one, and Austin has abandoned that duty.”
Now, those budget cuts and anti-police sentiment have come back to bite the city, with Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock telling Fox News Digital that Austin is on the “brink of disaster” right now.
Speaking about what is going wrong, he first highlighted the hostility to police, saying, “Previous councils and leadership have actively worked against our officers and department, which has now put us in a free-falling staffing crisis.” He then added that that has led to a decline in the number of officers and the misuse of special units, saying, “Twice now we’ve had our contract voted down or it has been allowed to expire. Each year since 2017, we’ve lost more officers than we’ve hired. We had to gut our specialized units and force detectives to work backfill on patrol just to try and respond to 911 calls.”
And in addition to the 2020 cuts, the City Council has voted down a four year contract with the department, leading to more police retirements. Describing the consequences, Bullock said, “As a result, our staffing has been set back at least 15 years and at the same time we’ve dealt with a population growth of over 250,000 new residents. Combine that with a district attorney who has made it very clear that targeting officers and releasing criminals is his priority – not public safety.”
In a post about the dire staffing situation on X, he said, “Staffing woes continue. Due to our staffing being at 2006 levels, an entire sector in East Austin went two hours without a patrol officer assigned to the sector today. Our backfill shift made up of detectives and specialized units pulling double duty had to provide coverage.”
One Austin resident, speaking to Fox News Digital about the state of the city, noted that 911 had just rang endlessly when she called after an accident that totaled her car and left her children visibly injured. Though she fortunately managed to get them to the hospital with a ride-share car, she noted that the incident highlighted the dire state of things in the city.
Commenting on the dire state of Austin, she said, “I understand longer response times in certain situations, but no response at all is scary! Especially when your babies are the ones you are seeking help for. I hope that our city can become safe again and that the police department can fill the empty spots, because if not, God help us all.”
"*" indicates required fields