Staffing shortages in the city’s police, fire and emergency medical services departments are driving record-high reliance on overtime. Following a request from the city’s Public Safety Commission, public safety officials provided data on overtime use, as well as some possible solutions, at the commission’s meeting on Monday. In response, commissioners voted unanimously to recommend that […]
Public Safety Commission
The Public Safety Commission is a City Council advisory body charged with oversight of budgetary and policy matters concerning public safety These include matters related to the Austin Police Department, the Austin Fire Department, and the Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Department.”
Posted inPublic Safety
Public Safety Commission hears update on regional emergency response coordination efforts
The Public Safety Commission heard an update on the city’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and its collaboration with other public safety entities at the commission’s regular meeting on Aug. 7. The briefing was presented by HSEM Director Ken Snipes, who took over the role in June. In the presentation, Snipes addressed a […]
Posted inPolice
Austin Police Department keeps running on overtime
In January 2019, the Austin Monitor reported that APD had 110 vacancies and was making up for those vacancies by paying officers overtime. On Monday, Assistant Police Chief James Mason told the Public Safety Commission the department now has 329 operational vacancies. Just as reported in 2019, and again last year, APD is counting on […]
Posted inPolice
Council debates data-retention period for license plate reader pilot program
City Council is negotiating how long the Austin Police Department should retain data from dashboard camera license plate readers – weighing civil liberty protections against potential crime-solving benefits – in preparation for a pilot program using the technology. Council defunded APD’s license plate reader program following mass protests against racial injustice and police violence in […]
Posted inCity Hall
Public Safety Commission, APD reach a detente
The Public Safety Commission and the Austin Police Department are recovering from a tense meeting earlier this month, at which APD leadership threatened to no longer attend commission meetings and commissioners lamented APD’s unresponsiveness, revealing a widening chasm. That’s why APD leadership’s appearance before the Public Safety Commission was noteworthy during a special called meeting […]
Posted inPolice
Public Safety Commission greenlights license-plate reader program amid police pushback
The Public Safety Commission voted unanimously on Monday that City Council approve a pilot program reinstating the Austin Police Department’s license-plate reader program – with caveats. Council is due to revisit a new contract for license-plate reader systems and related services with a third-party vendor at its Thursday meeting. The Public Safety Commission heeded criminal […]
Posted inPolice
City still needs more 911 operators
Although the city has stepped up recruiting efforts considerably for filling vacancies in its 911 call center, there are still 49 vacancies among the 104 positions, according to Maria Calagna, director of emergency communications for the Austin Police Department. Calagna told the Public Safety Commission Monday that the city also still needs to add two […]
Posted inPolice
APD, Public Safety Commission clash over decorum, responsiveness
Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon threatened to withhold his department’s participation in future meetings of the city’s Public Safety Commission, citing a lack of decorum and exposing deep-seated tensions between the two entities. Commissioners, in turn, spoke of APD leadership’s frequent refusal to answer their questions, preventing them from serving their advisory function to City […]
Posted inPolice
Public Safety Commission chair joins family’s calls for more information on Austin Police shooting death
The chair of the Public Safety Commission on Monday joined the family of a man fatally shot by Austin police in calling for more information from Chief Joseph Chacon. The comments from Chair Rebecca Bernhardt came during Monday’s meeting, after a public communication from the mother and brother of Rajan Moonesinghe. Moonesinghe, a 33-year-old tech […]
Posted inPolice
Austin Police revert to decentralized traffic enforcement approach
The Austin Police Department’s staffing shortages are leading it to take a decentralized approach to traffic enforcement, the city’s Public Safety Commission learned during a traffic enforcement and management update on April 3. Most of the crashes that happen on Austin roads every year occur on highways such as Interstate 35, U.S. Highway 183, and […]
Posted inPolice
Public Safety Commission calls out APD’s resistance to training academy reform
The city’s Public Safety Commission criticized the Austin Police Department for stonewalling a committee formed by City Council in 2021 to review the police training academy curriculum as part of a broader push to “reimagine” public safety. “Just to summarize, two years ago, maybe longer, the City Council, which is supposed to run this city, […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Public Safety Commission raises questions about proposed tow fee increases
The city’s Public Safety Commission wants more information before recommending an updated non-consent towing fee schedule for the Austin Police Department. Commissioners voted to recommend City Council reject the study and send it back for additional work. The item went before the commission at its Jan. 9 regular meeting. A non-consent tow includes police impound, […]