City and county health officials and health services organizations provided an update last Wednesday night on a five-year comprehensive community health planning initiative that will end in June. About 86 residents attended the community forum at the George Washington Carver Museum to learn about the Community Health Assessment/Community Health Improvement Plan, or CHA/CHIP, which outlines […]
Public Safety
Posted inEMS, Public Safety
Council devises short-term fix for EMS staffing
The union representing Austin emergency medical service workers won a partial victory last week when City Council voted to approve three new positions for the EMS call center. Three entry-level employees will be added to the center, and the department has agreed to try to fill three positions reserved for more experienced employees that it […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Council will vote on new 911 call center backup
“Austin is growing.” By now this maxim has become the resounding, if not infuriating, anthem of the city. It affects various sectors of life in Austin, from transportation to housing to health. And, as it turns out, it also affects how the city of Austin runs its 911 call center. “If something catastrophic happened, whether […]
Posted inPublic Health
Committee pushes for regular HHS budget increase
City Council’s Health and Human Services Committee is asking City Manager Marc Ott to consider an annual increase of at least 3 percent for the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department’s budget. The move comes after Council increased the department’s fiscal year 2015-2016 budget by more than $6.5 million in September. At the Jan. […]
Posted inEMS
Council delays decision on EMS staffing issues
City Council heard two competing narratives over a staffing shortage in the City of Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services communications and dispatch section of its discussion last week, as department management urged Council to approve an ordinance that would eliminate a midlevel employee classification so that some entry-level employees could fill positions currently reserved for […]
Posted inPolice
Austin police emphasize mental health training
The Austin Police Department has altered its training and procedures in response to a growing consensus among experts that much of crime is linked to untreated mental illness. As a result, all new cadets in the Austin police academy receive 40 hours of training on mental health and on responding to situations involving people with […]
Posted inPolice
City releases police body camera solicitation
The Austin Police Department moved closer to kicking off its highly anticipated body camera pilot program on Monday, when the city quietly released a solicitation for contract bids online. The contracts would be for the “purchase, implementation, and support” of the anticipated 500 body cameras to be rolled out over a four-month period next year, […]
Posted inFire, Public Safety
Fire department touts improved flood performance
Larry Jantzen, chief of special operations with the Austin Fire Department, told members of the Public Safety Commission on Monday that the department was able to respond more quickly and effectively to the Oct. 30 floods because of improvements it had made since the floods that struck Austin on Halloween of 2013. For starters, the […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Austin police talk ‘open carry’ at safety commission
The Austin Police Department expects to be fielding more gun-related 911 calls after Texas’ recently passed open carry law takes effect in January. The new law allows licensed gun owners to have their weapons visibly holstered in public, but many people may continue to be alarmed by those who choose to pack heat openly. In […]
Posted inPublic Safety
County applies for police body camera grant
The Travis County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to approve an application submitted by the Sheriff’s Office for a new statewide police body camera grant for a county body camera pilot program. The measure passed on a 4-0 vote, with Commissioner Brigid Shea absent. Alan Miller, a budget analyst with the county, wrote in a memo […]
Posted inPublic Safety
APD outlines body camera policy in forum
Amid calls for increased scrutiny of law enforcement across the nation, City Council has decided that the city should purchase body cameras for the Austin Police Department in the coming months. What that rollout and the policies that govern it will look like were the subject of a public meeting that the department held Monday […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Police monitor talks body cameras on task force
As the Austin Police Department prepares to roll out a body camera pilot program in the coming months, city Police Monitor Margo Frasier and law enforcement experts from across the nation are tackling the ethical and legal questions that come along with the technology. Frasier, a former Travis County sheriff who heads a city office […]