3 Apr 2013
The Austin Public Safety Commission met last week and debated the call for additional police officers for the APD. There are currently 1,740 officers on active duty in the city, and the demands for adding more ranges from 116 (Police Chief Art Acevedo) to 150 (some members of the APSC).
A recent article concerning the issue caught our eye, and we were wondering what the impetus was for the push to expand the number of officers. That article, curiously, mentioned only that officers were busier in 2011 than they were in 2010, with “free time” for on-duty officers declining from 27 minutes to 15 minutes. The “strain” is, according to what we read, the result of additional special events occurring in the city. We went to another report on the demand for additional police officers, which claimed that the added manpower was necessary “to keep up with population growth.”
Amid all this hue and cry for more police protection, we were a bit curious why no one seems to be talking about issues like growing crime rates. We’ve taken a look at some crime statistics in Austin and in Travis County, and we think we’ve discovered the reason why those in favor of expanding the department are focusing on issues such as more special events, and lower “free time” for officers. Here’s what we discovered:
- Between 2009 and 2010, violent crime in Travis County was down by about 7%;
- Between 2009 and 2010, property crime in Travis County was down by 12.4%;
- Between 2010 and 2011, the violent crime rate in Austin was down by 9%;
- Between 2010 and 2011, the property crime rate in Austin was down by 8%; and
- Between 2011 and 2012, violent crime in Austin was down by over 5% (although property crime was up by about 3% over the 2011 rate, it was still lower than in 2010).
These are not imaginary figures. They come from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in turn receives its information from the Travis County Sheriff’s Department and the APD.
On what we have before us, we can’t say for sure that the addition of more police officers, at a cost of many millions of dollars, is a mistake in this time of shrinking budgets and resources. But let’s hear some solid reasons why a significant bump in the number of officers should be supported – perhaps a bit more information than the loss of a few minutes of “free time.”
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC
1205 Rio Grande Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 369-3737