Violent Crime Rises in Austin While APD Makes Unnecessary Arrests

The FBI just reported that violent crime fell for the first time since 2005 and property crime fell again for the 5th year in a row nationwide. Check out Grits' report.

Meanwhile in Austin, as our report shows, violent crime is rising. APD is below the national average in cases cleared for both violent and property crimes. Another report reveals that communities with lower incarceration, despite the myth, experience greater crime reductions.

More evidence we must put the Citation Option into policy asap and implement it FULLY!

Austin's Neighborhoods Call for Citation Option

More wonderful news ~ the Austin Neighborhoods Council (ANC) voted to endorse the Citation Option! We are grateful to the ANC, which represents almost all neighborhoods in the city, for their support in making Austin a better place. ANC rocks!

Public Safety Taskforce Officially Urges Chief to Act

Great news! Yesterday afternoon the City of Austin Public Safety Taskforce passed this resolution asking Chief Acevedo to implement the Citation Option within 60 days:

CITY OF AUSTIN PUBLIC SAFETY TASKFORCE RESOLUTION to SUPPORT IMPLEMENTATION of the CITATION OPTION

WHEREAS, state law allows for law enforcement officers to issue citations instead of arrest and book people into jail over Class C Misdemeanor charges and as of Sept., 1, 2007, select Class A and Class B misdemeanor charges (HB2391, 80(R); Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Articles 14.06 and 15.17), which serves to free officers and courts from spending excess time on processing unnecessary arrests as well as free up much needed space in jails;

WHEREAS, many entities throughout Texas have implemented and are implementing the "Citation Option" including the Travis County Sheriff's office so that two inconsistent policies now exist in the County where the City of Austin overlaps; NOW THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE PUBLIC SAFETY TASKFORCE

Recommends Police Chief Acevedo implement the Citation Option within 60 days of passage of this resolution and that he update APD's General Orders accordingly.

I want to thank my colleagues on the City of Austin Public Safety Taskforce for taking up this important issue. Please join me in sending props to Chief Acevedo for agreeing with the resolution and urge him to take it seriously and put our recommended written policy in place!

Fewer Arrests, not More Officers!

Our officers are some of the highest paid in the country. They are spending hours on end downtown doing paperwork unnecessarily, and now our Chief has ordered them to give tickets and arrest (on Class C misdemeanor charges) homeless people while 58% of violent crime and 88% of property crime goes unsolved.

The City of Austin will, next week, approve the 2008/2009 budget which includes cuts in several departments to afford adding 24 new officers and 61 cars to APD. But we don’t NEED them! If the Chief is actually committed to implementing the Citation Option as he says, why didn’t he present it as a “Cost Savings Initiative” (on page 20)?

APD is about to get almost $4 million more in addition to their huge new labor contract (24 officers x $90,000 = $2,160,000, and 61 police cars x $27,500 (p.44) = $1,677,500) and since we know we can save at least $5.4 million a year by implementing the Citation Option …if we implemented the citation option we wouldn’t need to hire one more officer or buy one more car! Our officers (and their cars) would no longer be spending large blocks of their on-duty time booking people on unnecessary arrests. Instead, they’d could try to solve some of the 58% of Austin's unsolved violent crimes. It would be nice if some of our violent criminals were not still out on the street committing further crime.

Perhaps then too, EMS could have its Cadet Academy training this year; the seriously understaffed parks department wouldn’t have to put a freeze on 24 vacancies; and we wouldn’t have to cut back library hours and they could afford proper security and janitorial services.

Council says by the time one speaks at the public hearing for the budget, as I did last Thursday, it’s too late to change their mind on these very important matters. If you think that shouldn’t be the case, contact your city council members NOW to tell them they have the power of the purse to stop excessive spending on low-level offenses so that the crime in our City that actually affects the PUBLIC’s SAFETY can be better addressed. Tell them: “no more officers or cars until Chief Acevedo implements the Citation Option!"