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!"

How much more are you willing to pay in taxes to cover APD's optional arrests?

How much of your gasoline and grocery budget will you set aside for the tax man this year because of Austin police Chief Acevedo's decision to have Austin police officers arrest over 15,000 people every year in Austin, 37% of all of APD's arrests, when the Texas legislature says those people could have received a citation?

Thanks to Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast, and to the Austin American Statesman Editorial Board, for pointing out that the City of Austin and the Travis County budget are both being strained by the police.

If Austin police get the huge raises they are demanding, that will mean more cuts in library hours, parks, social services and other city functions next year, or higher city taxes. At the same time, Travis County is proposing to raise taxes to pay for increased incarceration caused by APD's optional arrests.

How much more do you want to pay for Chief Acevedo's unnecessary arrests? When the city pays police more, we lose library, parks and road money. When you pay more in taxes, you have less for groceries, gasoline, electricity and the rest of life's necessities. ... All so police can brag about high arrest numbers without solving even half of the violent crime in this town.

You can make a difference! Click here to contact Chief Acevedo - let him know it's time to stop wasting time and money with unnecessary arrests.

More coverage of the Citation Option:

• Daily Texan
• Grits for Breakfast, Part 2
  
• Austin American Statesman editorial re. stressed police budget
• KXAN

Check out coverage of the report:

• Austin Chronicle
  
• KUT
• KLBJ News Radio
• Grits for Breakfast
  
• Austin American Statesman online
  
• News 8 Austin
  
• KVUE
  
• KXAN
  

New Citation Option Report Released Today!

Millions Wasted Every Year as Public Safety is Compromised

Today at noon, we released a report that illustrates how at the apex of the budgeting cycle, and as police union officials negotiate for their labor contract with the City, we don't need more officers. By prioritizing how police respond to offenses, we can save money and improve public safety by keeping officers on the street to address Austin's most serious public safety needs.

Chief Acevedo should keep APD officers, who make about $90,000/yr. average before bonuses, busy solving our serious crime problems. It turns out that 37% of all Austin Police Department (APD) arrests qualify for the Citation Option! In the meantime, APD is only clearing 42% of the violent crimes in Austin, and 12% of our property crimes.

High arrest numbers allow APD to compete for money from the federal government and bargain for more money from Austin taxpayers in their labor contract.

Please send Chief Acevedo an email or call him and ask him to implement the Citation Option now! We will update you here as the situation develops.

One City, One Chief, One Policy!

The police chief continues to claim he is not able to implement the citation option because small bits of Austin are in Hays and Williamson counties. He repeats, "we can't have three policies," but we don't NEED three policies. Austin police have jurisdiction in every part of the City and Austin just needs one clear policy. Hays County Sheriff deputies can follow whichever policy they choose, just like Travis County has.

In fact, the Travis County Sheriff is implementing the Citation Option, Chief, so it looks like, thanks to you, we currently have two policies in this city. An Austinite who is stopped by APD will be arrested and incarcerated but the same person stopped by the Travis County Sheriff Department will be cited and released.

When the Chief says "he can't" it means "he won't." This long-awaited meeting with our neighboring counties, that won't happen until September, is a delay tactic.

Please contact the Chief today and ask him to stop the unnecessary delays ...one city/one chief/one policy!

Chief Acevedo sets first meeting for after the new labor contract is signed!

Chief Acevedo said he wants to meet with Hays and Williamson County officials before he implements the Citation Option and after months of stalling he FINALLY set up the first meeting ... but it's in September!

The new state law allowing the Citation Option was finalized in June, 2007, and went into effect September 1, 2007. Chief Acevedo has set up his first meeting about it for September 4, 2008. Why the delay? Could it be because Austin Police Department is set to have its new labor contract signed with the city by then? Does APD want taxpayers to pay for all of their unnecessary arrests for the next few years?

Who will be at this meeting and what are they there to discuss? State law gives the Chief authority to implement the Citation Option with the stroke of a pen. Weeks ago APD said they plan to meet with Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley to ask for his permission. We hope not. The Williamson County District Attorney doesn't handle misdemeanors, only felonies, so he has no business at such a meeting. We will let you know if we find out the guest list or the agenda for the September meeting.

There is NO reason to wait to implement the Citation Option. Please help by letting the Chief know that we do not want meeting after meeting while thousands of Austinites continue to be arrested and jailed for no reason in the meantime. Ask Chief Acevedo to put the Citation Option in place now!

Please ask your organization to endorse the Citation Option!

Some great organizations have endorsed the Citation Option:

• ACLU of Texas, Central Texas Chapter
• Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition (a coalition of dozens of organizations)
• City of Austin Human Rights Commission
• Grits for Breakfast
  
• LULAC, District 7
• LULAC, District 12
• PODER
• Texas Civil Rights Project
• Texas Jail Project
  

The City of Austin Commission on Immigrant Affairs will meet tomorrow night to vote on a similar resolution, and we've heard that several other organizations are meeting to consider an endorsement.

These groups agree that APD should have an official Citation Option policy in place. Some organizations are seeing APD’s failure to implement the Citation Option as directly related to the current meet and confer negotiations - the budget crunch should have us looking at where we can tighten our belts, not entertaining hiring more officers we don’t need because APD likes to increase their arrest numbers by arresting people unnecessarily. Neighborhood groups want the officers we do have patrolling, not down at the jail for hours doing paperwork on someone who’s license was expired or who was caught with a joint.

Take a look at the organizations that supported the Citation Option bill (HB2391) at the Texas Legislature last year:

• Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT)
• Travis County Commissioners Court
• Travis County Sheriff's Office
• Travis County Sheriff's Law Enforcement Association
• Houston Police Officers Union
• Texas State Lodge & Fraternal Order of Police
• Texas Conference of Urban Counties
• Texans for Public Safety Solutions
• Texas Public Policy Foundation, Center for Effective Justice
• Texas Criminal Justice Coalition
• Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association
• Texas Fair Defense Project
• American Civil Liberties Union of Texas

With this amazing group supporting the Citation Option at the state and local level … Will you ask your organization to endorse? Have we missed organizations that have already voted to endorse? Please let us know if we should add your org to the list or if you know of a group we should contact!