Austin police chief touts partnership with state law enforcement, city council members skeptical

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Austin family waited hours for police response after crash with suspected drunk driver

Lacey and Dustin Purciful and their attorney Adam Loewy discussed how the understaffed Austin Police Department resulted in an hours-long response to a crash

Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon touted his department's partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety on Tuesday, saying that violent crime rates have plummeted and 911 response times have decreased in recent weeks. 

The city announced that it would bring in state troopers and DPS special agents last month amid a staffing crisis at the Austin Police Department, which currently has more than 300 vacancies and has seen 102 officers depart so far this year. 

"DPS is here to help. They're not here to take over. They're certainly not here to cause harm or to cause anxiety. That is not their mission. Their mission is to help," Chacon told city council members on Tuesday morning. 

Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon appears before the city council on Tuesday morning.  (Austin City Council)

Violent crime fell 25% citywide in the first week of the DPS partnership, while it decreased 31% in the second week. Rates plummeted even further in specific high-crime areas where DPS has deployed, Chacon said. 

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The emergency communications center has also seen a decrease in calls for service, resulting in lower response times as more officers are freed up. 

Austin residents have complained for years about reckless driving that is rampant in the state capital. State troopers have made more than 4,000 traffic stops in the first two weeks of the partnership in areas where speeding, DWIs, and traffic fatalities are concentrated. The large majority of these stops have resulted in warnings, while about a fourth of them have resulted in tickets. 

Cyclists pass beneath the downtown skyline on the hike and bike trail on Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.  (Reuters/Julia Robinson)

Some city council members have criticized the secretive way that the partnership was negotiated and a lack of specificity in the data that police have released.

"The questions that we're asking here are for demographics, for specifics on the types of citations, for the specifics on where the traffic stops are happening, which we still have not received access to. That is what helps make this a confusing situation," Council Member Vanessa Fuentes told Chacon on Tuesday.

 "Because ultimately, we as counselors have to go back to our community and explain, ‘Where are these troopers patrolling? Why are they patrolling in our particular neighborhoods?’"

The Austin Police Department has fewer sworn officers now than it did 15 years ago, despite a boom in the Texas state capital's population over the last couple of decades. 

Austin Police patrolling 6th Street, one of the busiest nightlife districts in Austin, Texas.  (Spencer Selvidge for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The department's struggles to hire new talent and retain existing officers stretch back to August 2020, when the city council voted to cut the police budget by about a third in an effort to "reimagine" public safety. That funding was restored the next year to comply with state law, but multiple cadet classes had already been canceled and officers left in droves in search of more stable employment. 

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A recent battle between the city council and police union over a new contract has not helped recruiting efforts. 

"I want to be able to put 100 cadets into each class. But the fact is, right now I'm putting about 35 to 40, and at that rate, and with the attrition rate that I have right now, I'm not making any progress on these vacancies," Chacon told the city council. "As a matter of fact, we're falling further and further behind every month."