ASAN – Austin Police Department is making some changes to help the patrol officer staff and help in responding 911, but the employment crisis in the department is far from being fixed.
“The full backbone of any organization is a patrol,” said APD Lisa Davis president.
There are currently 540 APD officers, according to APD. The administration said that these officers are leading all over the city, and they respond to emergency calls and the monitoring of societies, but Davis said that there are not enough officers.
Davis said: “To obtain this number of officers in a patrol in the city of this size, it is not safe that it is unacceptable.”
To fill this vacuum, APD had about 40 employees, including investigators and other patrol officers.
Davis says this was causing problems with moral balance and working life. APD said it was also causing many additional work officers.
Davis said: “So you are considering filling and officers who are investigators in the aggravated attack or theft to spend time spending 10 hours, then they must return and do an additional time to catch up with the case and prepare for the court,” Davis said.
To help in this case, APD 72 will send officers from specialized units to Patrol.
“There was no one from any survey, so when you look at a violent crime, you look at the sexual assaults that were granted additional bodies,” Davis said.
Davis also says that she also hopes that the lessons of the trainees will continue to grow to add to APD numbers and eventually create these units numbers in the future.
“When we start growing and we repeat people, how does that seem to go forward to restore different services,” said Davis.
The Austin Police Association responds
“These types of changes are difficult. We need more officers in general and patrols are where the largest number of vacancies are there. Our division rearranged, once again, has an impact on morale and life officers. Reducing the specialized units that the employee can also move, while it is still likely to affect the resources that are still useful. Last year, we have had more officers from the administration since 2018, thanks to the return to the contract.
Michael Bullock, President of the Austin Police Association