Austin mom on police shortages resulting in no help after car accident
Austin resident Lauren Klinefelter on how the Austin police shortages following the defunding of the police in 2020 impacted her family
The repercussions of liberals' "Defund the Police" movement that reached its peak in 2020 continue to reverberate in communities across America.
One Texas woman told Fox News on Monday that, due to a slashed police budget in the capital city of Austin that led to an officer shortage, she was ping-ponged between 911 to municipal service hotline 311 several times until she finally called a rideshare service to take her injured children to a hospital.
Lauren Klinefelter reacted on "America Reports" to news that one precinct in Austin had zero patrol officers for a several-hour span recently, saying she is not surprised at the report.
"In February of 2022, me and my children were in a pretty bad car accident. I called 911. I was routed to 311… they threw me back to 911, and I was just kind of in a roundabout circle of going back and forth, back and forth for about an hour. My children were visibly injured. My car was totaled," she said.
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Klinefelter added that she eventually hired an Uber. She said her mother now works for the local 311 service and attested to the claim some emergency calls are being routed to the non-emergency number – which in cities like New York and Washington takes reports of treacherous sidewalk conditions, traffic signal outages, noise complaints and more.
"America Reports" anchor John Roberts added that Austin has also seen a spike in murders – to a rate of one per week – that a local Fox affiliate reported is also attributed to the police staffing shortage.
Roberts recounted working in Austin in the past, and recalled it being a pleasant and fun city to visit.
"It's a scary place right now," Klinefelter countered.
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She said Austin residents affected by the worsening conditions are trying to unite as a community to be heard by local leaders in hopes of reversing the worrisome trend.
After the 2020 vote by Austin City Council to slash the police budget by about 30%, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott predicted it would put Austin law enforcement and their families at a higher risk and said the state Department of Public Safety will try to "stand in the gap" to protect the community.
Councilmen like now-U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas by contrast celebrated the resolution, tweeting "We did it!"
Casar said at the time the police budget reduction would "reinvest resources into our community's safety and well-being," and said thousands of people corresponded with or testified before the council in favor of the budget cut, before closing the tweet with the hashtag BlackLivesMatter.
A spokesperson for the city of Austin told Fox News Digital in recent days that Austin Police face "some of the most pressing departmental concerns in the organization, particularly in the area of staffing and training."
"The need for additional resources for APD remains a top priority and the Interim City Manager will be assessing what options are available to the city," the spokesperson said.
Joe Gamaldi, vice president of the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) told Fox News on Monday that Austin lawmakers' "defund the police" movement has been an "unmitigated disaster."
"They defunded their department by $150 million. The next year, they had their highest murder rate in recorded history. Aggravated assaults are up 18%, car thefts are up 77%, and their response times to emergencies are up to ten minutes," Gamaldi, who has served with the NYPD and Houston agencies, told "The Ingraham Angle."
Gamaldi said it is not just urban areas like Austin feeling a rise in crime and reduction in patrols. He added that police applications in New Jersey are down 90%, and down 80% in Illinois.
"You know where they're not having recruiting problems? Where you have communities that actually support police officers that don't treat their officers like crap, who actually treat them fairly," he said.
Fox News' Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this report.
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