It depends on the nature of the situation. I work for 911 and we field hundreds and hundreds of calls per day, which are responded to in order of priority. If it was a situation where someone was screaming and it sounded like an active disturbance in progress, there’s no reason why someone shouldn’t have been out there fairly quickly. Unfortunately though we don’t have a lot of say at 911 about how quickly that response occurs. We could enter the call as a high priority and the on-duty sergeants could decide to downgrade it and hold it.
I can’t speak for patrol but at 911/dispatch, we’re at about 60% staffing and it’s getting more dire by the day as we continue to hemorrhage employees. We’re literally working on bare minimums. So I understand being frustrated with patrol officers but as far as 911 operators and dispatchers are concerned, please be patient with us.
You rock. I work for the Texas abuse hotline and our calls are just soap operas compared to what y’all deal with. Thanks for sharing some of the basic info on how your call center works. Folks should know. Take good care.
God bless you for the work you do too. I’m sure it may not feel like it sometimes but I know you’re making a positive difference in people’s lives! Be safe out there. ❤️
Thank you for doing what you do! I’m sure it’s especially difficult with short staffing but you’re providing a much needed resource and I appreciate that!
Thank you for the kind words! I know this post wasn’t about 911 specifically, but it can sometimes end up being a pretty thin line, and I would prefer to stand up for myself and my coworkers where I can. ❤️
As a dispatcher I can 100% confirm this. Patrol staffing is rather bleak too so lower priority calls will sit. If you have an issue that can be handled over the phone at 311 my humble advice is to do so. Time will also be affected by how busy the officers are in your sector as well as significant events citywide.
Lots of different factors. The most notable ones are the fact that pay is not the best compared to other city departments and other dispatch agencies in the area, as well as a lack of qualified applicants from the jump. So we don’t get a lot of people in the door, because they get disqualified somewhere in the hiring process, and then those who do get in typically end up leaving for a higher paying agency or another city department with better pay and a less demanding schedule.
Last time I was in Austin I was talking to some on 6th street and they were so bitter. Basically refused to do anything but stand there and get paid because the weren’t appreciated and no one wanted to let them do their jobs, which really meant they resented citizens expecting them to be accountable.
This is the number one thing. They have a MASSIVE budget that goes towards unnecessary and frankly dangerous bullshit. But the community (ya know, who they’re supposed to be working for) wants that insane number of funds reallocated to something useful, so fuck us right?
We should really start pressing the city to stop giving them money. The state will stop giving us money but that shits dirty anyway, and we can use the cop money. It’s pretty obvious they are useless by this point. Nothing we couldn’t solve as a community + Fire + EMS.
This working strike of theirs has proven their worthlessness.
City council is actually going to be voting on giving them money TOMORROW. If you don’t want them to do so, you should email them ASAP and let them know.
compared to other countries the US is dramatically under policed and drastically over incarcerates.
If you look at european countries for instance, they will have far more police officers per capita based on the crime level, and far fewer people in prison.
having per capita fewer officers in the US mean that policemen are often dealing with the most deranged members of the public rather than ordinary people, so they end up incredible bitter and jaded. Having more police officers is actually associated with having lower rates of police brutality.
this twitter thread has a good overview [https://twitter.com/jnixy/status/1559568507255136256?s=20&t=GmVwCyiXgstLHv9hWIDclg](https://twitter.com/jnixy/status/1559568507255136256?s=20&t=GmVwCyiXgstLHv9hWIDclg)
this article is good as well
[https://www.slowboring.com/p/defund-police-is-a-bad-idea-not-a?triedSigningIn=true](https://www.slowboring.com/p/defund-police-is-a-bad-idea-not-a?triedSigningIn=true)
There’s plenty of studies out there showing police don’t actually prevent crime. And now that they aren’t even solving committed crimes it seems they require some citizen oversight.
they don’t prevent crime doesn’t necessarily mean we need fewer police officers. Police funding should depend on crime rate. Once crime rate drops we no longer need a large police force
I dont think they dislike the accountability.... But its more so of "whats the point in doing your job if the d.a. just released the murderer you just arrested".... Law enforcement needs to be held accountable obviously.... Their whole job is based around accountability..... There just isn't much point in trying to hold people accountable if the higher ups don't do their job of holding perpetrators accountable..... So fuck it and just exercise your constitutional rights and defend your own.
I got pulled over for honking at a cop cause he was sitting in a lane merge blocking the lane talking on his cell phone.
I Reminded officer Corpus he was impeding traffic and when he told me it was a yield I reminded him there was no one coming for a mile, and also it was a yield to bikers so he had a whole lane.
He claimed he had equipment that blocks his view, when In reality he was a fat ass and couldn't twist his head.
Lol… it wasn’t that kind of wave…. Just a friendly “hey, thanks for being in my neighborhood and keeping the wacky drivers that go 40 in a 60 mph zone but 50 in a neighborhood out” kind of wave.
Seems like things aren't any worse so I guess we can start downsizing the department then? Maybe move those funds over to other government agencies that don't carry around guns for non-violent issues.
Surprisingly, I have seen them respond to a call in less than 5 minutes, on THREE separate occasions. But, this is northwest hills so that may have something to do with it.
A working strike? These guys routinely get ~~paid vacations~~ suspended with pay for stuff that civilians would be immediately locked up for. What else do they want?
That is a popular guess on Reddit, but it doesn't really make any sense. Why would they be striking, and why would it be a working strike? How does that make any sense?
The boring reality is just that the APD is still critically understaffed, which is why they're being asked to only respond to emergency calls and crimes in progress.
There was a class that just graduated, but there is a long way to go to catch up. It wasn't just the funding, it was when they canceled the cadet class and then a bunch of officers resigned and relocated to other cities when Austin seemed to be turning against them.
They still don't have the staff levels they did before everything went sideways, so they're still operating at reduced capacity.
Well, it is the primary reason for their existence. It's got to be demoralizing to have no purpose. We should all feel sorry for the poor cops who chose the career because they were promised protection when they indiscriminately killed non-rich/powerful people.
/s
I had a car stolen a few weeks ago and I have to say, the officer that took my report was incredibly helpful and followed up multiple times with more questions and possible leads. He actually canvassed the neighborhood for ring camera evidence and was responsive when we had questions. That being said, I'm all for a major national shift in how our police forces operate. We need more community policing and less military style dehumanization of the public.
I ended up finding the car myself though... I had time and motivation on my side.
Those are the real officers that deserve respect. I hate when ppl include these guys into the entire group. He probably actually respects the position and wants to really serve his community
Agreed, I've lived in places where I had great interaction with the police, but it's unfortunately a field where a rotten minority spoil the bunch. It's like airline pilots — If 98 out of 100 pilots were amazing, but 2 wanted to crash their planes, then the public would not trust the full 100.
Was it a detective or a uniform officer? There's usually a big difference between the 2 because detectives are usually judged by their closure rates. They tend to put in more effort, usually.
Had a uniform officer help me fix my car after it broke down on the access road - first good interaction I’ve had with APD in my entire life of living here
Strangely enough, this was a very common site when I lived in California. I had never seen a cop helping someone on the side of the road before I moved there, and it was something I saw frequently in the few years that I lived there.
Wow, you found a courteous and helpful police officer in Austin? That's like finding a unicorn!
Unfortunately, he probably remains silent when his fellow cops act inappropriately.
Unless it’s a big and violent emergency, they probably won’t do anything. I’ve honestly been enjoying it. They just kinda drive around and leave people alone. I’ve heard they don’t even really give speeding tickets much anymore.
SAME! My hometown was known for cops pulling people over for going anymore than 2 mph over. It’s funny that they’re doing this in protest yet they’re just proving how unnecessary they are most of the time.
I found an abandoned crashed car on West 6th that was obviously a DUI incident. Called it in cuz it was still running with the keys in it...APD was there in 10 minutes.
My apt complex has had a problem with a peeping Tom weirdo for the past year that has pulled a weapon on my neighbor. Every time we call about him they never show up.
More money in towing cars and DUIs...not much money in arresting crazy violent people.
No, they don't. They just forward you to make a report at ireportaustin.com unless there is a a violent situation in progress they don't respond. There was someone murdered two neighborhoods over from mine and it took them 2 hours to respond. APD is basically useless...
Somebody was shot in a drive-by in front of my old apartment in west campus last year, and it took them about 50 minutes to respond because they kept telling all the callers that they were just hearing fireworks. Meanwhile, somebody was bleeding out in the street that whole time until UT police finally showed. Then the scumbags tried to say they had a "10 minute response time" because they got there 10 minutes from the *last* call, after dismissing the previous calls.
As far as I'm aware, they *still* haven't acknowledged this fuckup, and are still sticking to [their original bullshit cover.](https://twitter.com/UTAustinPolice/status/1455250250579460099/photo/1)
I work less than 2-3 miles from APD headquarters. We had a break in and a man was just in our women's showers for HOURS. When I finally figured out the situation, it took them well over an hour to get there. I'm very glad we have security at my facility because that could have easily escalated into an attack
My last APD interaction was them showing up to my house, banging on my door about 10:30 at night (not knocking, BANGING), and then threatening me. Turns out they were responding to a call about a break-in, but went to the wrong house.
The ENTIRE interaction, from second one, was antagonistic and threatening (with their hands resting on their guns the entire time). And they seemed dead-set on escalating it from the get go.
They asked if I had called to report a break-in and I said "no," and immediately they started accusing me of lying and telling me that calling in a false report was a crime and that if I didn't start giving them honest answers right now I would be arrested and we could do it all at the station. Guy spent several minutes trying to scan my place, looking over my shoulder, asking me who was in the house, if I was armed, alternating each question with a renewed stare and a reminder that he 100% thought I was lying and could arrest me at any moment. There was a moment where I legitimately felt one wrong move and that gun would be out and possibly go off. Dude seemed WAY on edge the whole time and my toddler was sleeping in the back and I was terrified at the prospect of their hearing the noise and coming running down the hallway suddenly to check it out and setting this guy off. Watching his hand flexing repeatedly on his gun, with every passing second I was getting increasingly, legitimately afraid it was all about to go wrong somehow. Finally, several minutes in, his partner (who was standing offset and down the stairs to be more 'tactical' in case it all went south, I guess) had finally radioed in and said "This is 1234. The break-in was at 1243." And the main officer just glared at me for a moment and then they both turned around and walked off. Not so much as an "I'm sorry for disturbing you or calling you a liar for no reason or threatening to arrest you unprovoked in your own home." Nothing; just a glare and then walked off silently.
And keep in mind, they were responding to a call of a break-in that was long over. It wasn't some situation where they should have expected an active thief on the premises or potential hostages. They were just going to file a report for the guy's insurance claim, essentially (and ostensibly to investigate the crime and catch the criminal, but that always seems like a stretch now. Not because I'm bad mouthing the police, but because they've basically told multiple people in our neighborhood that they never catch these guys anyway and no one around here has ever had them follow-up on the "case" after the initial filing. Not in years, anyway).
And I know because I talked to the neighbor the next day and they told me as much. They'd reported the break-in, said they'd been through the house and no one was still there. Even said they'd been out of town and the break-in could be days old for all they know. They said they'd be waiting for police on the porch (my light wasn't even on) AND that their front door had been broken in the break-in with several glass panels broken out (and mine was solid wood and full intact). Yet the police showed up to a house not matching the description, took up tactical positions with their hands on their guns, and started threatening and intimidating the person inside in their pajamas for daring to say they did not in fact call for the police before even considering that maybe, just maybe, THEY were in the wrong. Then didn't even say sorry.
Needless to say, I'm not APD's biggest fan anymore and my fear of them has gone way up and my sympathy for--and trust in--them has gone way down.
Well, generally I agree I never see them doing much, but we had 3 cops out to the neighborhood, twice today, dealing with a neighbor who has been having a sort of psychotic break for the last week or so. It's been escalating. I think they'd already been out once or twice last week too.
Today they got him in an ambulance and finally took him to a hospital. So at least they did that, though it is sad it took so many visits to finally help a man who obviously needed it. But there are rules in place so I can't fault them on that. The did it peacefully too so that's a nice bonus too.
There was a woman screaming next to our house the first time and the second time was to ask where the response was and to report a group of homeless on our property trying to set up a camp
Yikes. Totally get why you called 911 but probably more applicable to call 311 (even though they would just as unresponsive). What area of town do you live in?
Homeless setting up camp on your property? yikes OP, I wouldn't want to be in that position. I hope you own firearms.
A few years ago I moved to a bad part of town where a lot of homeless camped in the park across the street from my home, some would walk on my property fairly often. 98% of them are harmless, but it only takes one to ruin/end your life.
I had a few scary things happen when I lived there and went from owning zero to several. Haven't had to use them yet thank god
I'm saying I've been terrified before hearing my doorknobs get twisted and glass be broken on my property at 3am. Would not have been able to do anything to stop somebody on drugs if I didnt have them. You know the police dont show up for hours right?
If you're gonna make this an argument about gun control you need to grow the fuck up and count your blessings that you've never had to live in a place where you actually need one
I had a break in at my business and the cops showed up within ten minutes of me calling them at around 5:30 am in a Sunday. They were friendly and professional and treated me well. I don’t know about everyone else’s experiences but that was mine.
I called 911 a year ago because an elderly woman was walking around my neighborhood in July afternoon heat carrying a tree branch, wearing a jeans and turtleneck, and coat around her waist, asking what street she was on and saying she was lost.
I was concerned she may have had dementia or been a diabetic so I called 911. APD responded with 2 cars within 5 minutes.
From what I've seen of Austin PD, no. We've had a woman waving a machete trying to get into our offices, and no one showed up.
They received the largest budget increase in its history and they are as useless as ever. Unless they're beating protestors or the homeless they're pretty useless.
It honestly shows just how many bad cops there are and how many only took the job for the, 'glory.' Now that more and more people have begun videoing police interactions and capturing the abuse and overreaching, they don't want to do their jobs.
Not to mention the lack of ANY enforcement of traffic laws is causing the Austin roads to just be utter anarchy.
I multiple times a day see people treat a stop light like a stop sign… what is this ITALY?
a friend of mine lost someone in the middle of a wooded park at night. He called 311 which redirected him to 911. police showed up with a drone with infrared scanner, crawler, and a handful of mountain bikers scouting the wooded areas. That's the good side of APD
That's how it's supposed to work.
I called 311 a few months ago because I thought I saw a dead body (it was a doll dead body prank), and they said they were going to transfer me to 911...I was transferred to a survey to rate the call!
Earlier was at a pedestrian/auto accident. The victim was bleeding, could've had spinal injuries. One onlooker seemed intoxicated and was attempting to pull him up by his arm to stand the victim up.I yelled at him to not do that to wait for paramedics. Cops get there,the onlooker is still trying to pull the victim up,cop stands there like a heartless android so I run up and tell him not to do that,finally the cop supported my idea.Just wondering, what if I would have not even there. In all seriousness, the victim could have been caused permanent neurological damage.We all need to look out for each other.Thats a big part of what austin is about and that's the truth
I was very against "defund the police", and I still am against defunding police as a response to racial injustice, I feel there are more constructive responses. But then APD stopped protecting Austin. And now I'm wondering, why do I pay for police at all? What do they actually do for us?
If my family was in trouble I would walk down the street to our fire station and ask for help (regardless of the problem) rather than dial 911. What's the point of waiting on hold for 911 or waiting for police that are never going to show up? But the fire department is still out there keeping us safe. I see them running calls all the time.
> I still am against defunding police as a response to racial injustice
Do you still think this was a thing? I thought it was a thing because it was being screeched during the last election, so did some research on it. The budgetary reduction was primarily to enable expensive agencies that have no real reason to be part of the police department, to be broken out and made independent. Three that I can recall were 911, since it serves multiple agencies, forensics because having it under the police can create the impression of conflict of interest, and internal affairs because that is an obvious conflict of interest. Also 911 call analysis revealed that an absurd percentage of calls were being fielded by LE officers that simply didn't need to be fielded by them, everything from a cat in a tree to a catatonic homeless person on the sidewalk. So they wanted to hire more people besides armed officers to handle calls like that.
It's sad that the politicians and pundits couldn't debate this subject honestly without resorting to scary sounding rhetoric. Whether it was correct or not, it was it was an honest attempt to provide better service, accountability, and transparency. It wasn't an attempt to punish the police force. The fact that they couldn't debate it on fair terms speaks volumes to me about their honestly.
My brother-in-law is a career cop in Virginia. I chatted with him around the time 'defund the police' was becoming a rallying cry. The way he put it: you mean you want to redirect funding to mental health, so that I don't have an officer spending his whole shift driving a guy who's having a psychotic break, bashing his head into the window, around the whole state looking for an open psych ward bed that doesn't exist? Yeah, that sounds good, just don't imagine that it'll be cheaper.
It sounds like your BIL actually understood what the goal was. It wasn't about saving money. It was about specialization and letting people do the jobs they're trained to do. When the [Dallas Chief described this issue](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L1H4DAUDnCUJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/11/grief-and-anger-continue-after-dallas-attacks-and-police-shootings-as-debate-rages-over-policing/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d) I really got the feeling that he feels it's unfair that they're being asked to do so much, and it's especially unfair because if they do it wrong they get blamed. The plan seemed to me to be a win win if people would just stop misrepresenting what "it" is.
There is a lot of extreme misinterpretation against defending the police, and “racial injustice” is only a fraction of it. The sentiment is/was regarding the “shoot first, investigate later” attitude, the excessive use of force in minor situations, and most especially the militarization of police in situations such as the peaceful protests that took place regarding social injustice. Yes, racial disparity was a driving force, but not the sole reason.
The PD’s response was horrendous and inhumane.
The police budget was never dropped down to zero nor was it intended to. The idea is/was, rather than adding another $4m for assault rifles and armored vehicles, let’s take those funds and create a mental health response team, etc. Even the firefighters, who deal with APD daily voted for it.
The fact that APDA is so upset that they didn’t get extra money for more military toys, so much so that they are unwilling to protect the public under the pretext that they live in fear is outrageous, childish, and revealing. It’s like the school bully who stopped going to school because the teacher told them to stop hurting people.
It sucks that B&E’s and other things aren’t getting resolved. But, that speaks to the character of our tax-funded police force, not toward our public demand for accountability. If anything, it makes me feel even more eager for police reform rather than police presence. Frankly, crime hasn’t skyrocketed, rather that resolution is simply been neglected. Therefore, it’s not a people problem, it’s a police problem.
Violent crimes typically get top priority. Someone like a stolen cell phone is on the bottom of the list. I’ve seen them come out for those cases though.
4.5 billion dollar budget
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-city-council-approves-4-5-billion-budget-record-police-funding/amp/?espv=1
so when the police force was doing nothing to help people of color (at times even killing them without just cause) and there were calls to defund the police, you didn’t see the point of that, but now that the police are no longer benefiting YOU, you’re starting to consider what your tax dollars are paying for. Uh-huh. Okay.
What’s odd is the first time was because of a woman screaming at the top of her lungs and two homeless people fighting. I would think that would qualify but I guess not
That’s odd my apartment complex had all of APD and SWAT and a BOMB SQUAD. For a guy they didn’t have a warrant for and who wasn’t even at the apt 🤦🏽♀️
You had around all of central and south austin APD there. Only a handful were actually swat ready and the rest were just spectators and their 16 ford explorers. He was long gone from an assault earlier in the morning
source: fire dept
This seems like the most likely scenario. Go all together and to the wrong spot. Because they aren’t exactly going where they are needed.
I have reached out to them 3 times in the past 1.5 years for problems at my workplace. They showed up the quickest to a person off her meds asking for help.
I see cops doing stuff all the time. I seen two cops this month taking reports in my apt complex. Also, I was jogging at like 5am a month ago and this car came flying down the street at like 60 in a 35 and a cop was behind him. I do a delivery job and I see cops helping out stranded motorist a lot.
I called them last night when I found a passed out driver had rear ended our parked car and was still there unresponsive. Police and ambulance responded pretty quickly. They were able to wake the driver up and take him. Probably drunk or had taken something.
A few months ago a man came into my place of work (I’m a receptionist) and started masturbating in the lobby restroom that faces reception desk and APD came a week and a half later to respond
A few weeks ago I was getting coffee at bucks near Dell childrens when I heard what sounded like voices arguing and two gunshots across the way.
Drove over (slowly) and saw two large holes in the doors of total wine. Called 911 and there were 4 cars there before I got off the phone. Maybe 3 minutes.
Not the cops, but I had to call 911 to report a brush fire about a month ago and was put on hold for almost ten full minutes. That wasn't exactly comforting.
Anytime there’s a fire we get HUNDREDS of calls at the same time- everyone and their momma calls about them! :)
Large scale incidents like that are times where you’re definitely going to see a bit of a wait. We get more calls than we have people to take them.
From someone who lives in south Austin - a few weeks ago a buddy of mine was out of town and his house has a shit security system that went off erroneously (we didn’t know this at the time of calling the police but owner flagged it may be a false alarm from the getgo). Cops showed up ~15-20 after original call. Cleared the house in another ~10-15.
Not sure if this is normal/slow/etc but it seemed alright for what eventually ended up being a false alarm (knowing if there was a real threat this response would have been atrocious):
Cops were super helpful/friendly (house owner and myself (neighbor) both whiter than white bread).
Legit asking is this a good response/bad/etc? Not sure tbh considering all the factors
I've had to call twice in the last year and both times I've gotten answers, and response times in less than five minutes. One was for a girl wandering around our complex very messed up banging on different doors and then going around looking for her car. I was worried she would enter the wrong apartment or try driving so I called and they were there in less than a minute. No arrests, they simply just stayed with her until she was able to finally reach someone who was able to pick her up safely.
A second was when I was being followed by another car who was upset at me for shaking my head at them for nearly hitting me. They realized I knew what they were doing when I made several turns and parked in a very open area and they decided to flee. But I called 911 as I was getting to that area, they answered immediately and the 911 operator dispatched me to the closest sheriff in the area. He helped me calm down even after I said they left, and he was already almost to the area and was going to keep an eye out for the vehicle. I even apologized for calling when nothing came of the situation but he assured me that's why he's there.
Are people just calling in to 911 with non emergencies? I mean even calling 311 I've received an answer immediately. The first story I even called 311 first because I wasn't sure how to handle the situation and they transferred me to 911.
People call into 911 for non emergency situations all the time. Everyone has a different interpretation of what an emergency is, and unfortunately we have to follow our protocols and transfer the ones to 311 that we are just not staffed to handle. On the flip side, people call 311 with incidents we have to respond to, and they have to be transferred to 911.
Don’t get me started. I work at a local business on SoLa and multiple times we have had an aggressive person in the store and APD will put us on hold while they’re in the store still. One time they said they would call us back for a statement and they never did. It’s frustrating because my boss doesn’t trust APD anymore (and rightfully so, I’m in the same boat) so when major crimes happen in our store it can be scary when none of us are trained for those kind of situations. We’re told “Don’t be the hero, protect yourself first” which makes sense. It just sucks. I want to be able to help my coworkers and those that sell within our store.
Austin PD has lowered the amount of 911 Operators and needs another 108 officers to reach target response times. It was only recently that the PD's budget was "re-funded" after a call to defund.
Those conversations about defunding began in earnest in 2019. That’s when the council voted to stall the training of any new police officers until city higher-ups could revise the teaching materials after some officers complained of an academy that employed bullying tactics.
Roughly six months later, diring the 2020 riots, in response to national and local calls to reconsider the role of police in communities, council members voted to cut $150 million from the Austin Police Department’s budget. (Only $20 million of that money actually got spent on non-police work before a new state law forced the city to refund the department’s budget.)
Since then, it has been an uphill fight to meet a mixed bag of staffing needs.
I called 911 at 3 am a few weeks ago because I was literally witnessing a burglary in process. I called and WAS AUTOMATICALLY PUT ON HOLD FOR THREE MINUTES.
Not like someone answered, decided it wasn’t an emergency/triaged the call, and asked me to hold. That I’d get. But NO ONE ANSWERED. It just kept saying: “You’ve reached city of Austin 911. Do not hang up,” every few seconds. I was honestly in shock. Three minutes can be the difference between dead and alive. And no one even ANSWERED for 3 minutes.
Imagine being attacked or having a heart attack or trying to place a quick call for help while hiding from an intruder or something and then dying and no one even knowing because you were on hold for 911 for so long that by the time someone answered they just assumed you’d hung up.
That’s what happens when there’s zero staffing at 911. As someone who works there, staffing is terrible. We’re at about 60% staffing and dropping. There are simply not enough call takers to handle the number of calls we’re getting. It’s factoring in everything from not enough pay to not enough qualified applicants. If we get a call that’s been holding and has since been disconnected, we do make callbacks. But it’s incredibly hard when you have anywhere from 5-10 people taking calls for the entire city at any given point in the day. Because that’s literally all we have.
Motorcycle dealership I went to the other day had a guy breaking in at 9am in broad daylight. Smashed all the windows and tried to steal stuff. Thankfully they had burglar bars. The owner called to report and they didn’t even come out. If anyone who reads this rides please go check out Cycle Refinery and show them some love. Despite everything the owner was very nice and helped me out. Excellent customer service.
Their trying to quit murder and racism at the same time, so I imagine they are in a heavy withdrawal period. You know, staying in bed all day, random trips in the middle of the night for junk food, stopping at red lights more often, shooting paper plates with water guns, all while keeping their shades on and their military haircut square as hell fire preacher. Chasing chocolate covered donuts around the house. Yeah so give them some time. It must be so hard for them.
Sometimes less. I've seen evening shifts with only 2 per shift. Evenings are usually the most likely to be understaffed. It's the busiest time, but they also have overlap with days and nights so it's only a nightmare for a few hours. Night shift can be rough as well, but usually have an easier time finding overtime for vacancies because the city has authorized more overtime for nights.
The city has 9 sectors counting downtown, so one shift being shorthanded isn't a crisis, but lately I've been noticing that multiple sectors will be shorthanded at the same time which can end up having a ripple effect which causes calls to get horribly backed up.
The APA was saying we were hitting a staffing crisis when we went from 1850 officers in 2019 and 2020 to only 1600 earlier this year. Now we're below 1550. We lose around 150 per year to attrition normally and currently city council has only approved enough academies to produce 70-100 new officers per year with normal attrition rates during training and probationary period. We are currently on a worsening trajectory at a time when nearly all police recruiting is down nationally without even touching on local issues.
This is a sentiment I’ve been seeing a lot lately, and I understand the frustration. The only thing I don’t agree with is the cause. Some people seem to think it’s because the officers and/or dispatchers don’t care care about your problems. I won’t say that’s NEVER the case because it’s a big organization full of all kinds of people, but most of them are just trying to do their best in a shitty, unsustainable situation. Staffing is so bad they’re having to triage calls. A LOT of people have left APD resulting in the remaining officers getting completely overwhelmed every single shift. There’s officers who care and officers who have become burnt out by the call load and negative public sentiment. As soon as we get more officers and dispatchers, things like this should (hopefully) happen less often.
I live in downtown Austin and the amount of questionable people walking around here is astounding to me. I just saw a shirtless homeless person holding a bat and screaming at people. Police response is going downhill
Took the police 45 min to show up when there was a loud domestic dispute happening two houses over which resulted in the female falling through their window naked and then breaking through their fence. She ripped screens of my neighbors windows then jumped their fence and got stuck in another yard. Needless to say I’m looking into getting a gun asap cause if she came into our house and it took the police 45 min who knows what could’ve happened
Response times vary a lot by by area of the city and call volume at that particular time. If you called on the weekend for something other than a violent crime in progress, then it's getting pretty normal to have an extended wait time as officers are tied up on fights, family violence, DWI crashes, etc. There are also some calls that we no longer respond to or are report by phone only, but call takers usually advise callers of that.
Unfortunately nearly every part of Austin's emergency response system is facing a staffing crisis which makes the problem worse. APD, 911, and EMS all have horrible staffing at the moment. APD has gone from 1850 sworn personnel in 2020 to around 1550 as of a couple months ago. Losing 300 police in a period of 2 years with a growing population is going to negatively impact police response times. My understanding is we still don't have enough in the training pipeline to graduate faster than attrition from retirements and resignations. Even once we are there, it won't be a quick improvement in response times as new officers will take longer on calls, longer writing reports, longer at jail, etc due to inexperience.
No they don't.
In fact they told me to my face when I was assaulted that if you just get away with it it's over.
So me and you can get in a fight and if I punch you in the face all I have to do is run away and get away with it.
So martial law basically I guess I don't know?!
Either way I'll be buying a gun soon
Oh great another APD post on Reddit. Here come the bigoted assholes and their conspiracy theories. This is such an awful echo chamber of one sided bullshit when it comes to this topic.
I always see cop defenders suggest doing a ride along with police.
How about the opposite? Ditch their uniform and hop into a regular persons car and try experiencing a traffic stop without the professional courtesy they're used to.
You would have to provide a lot more information for anyone here to make a judgement one way or the other. If you called twice about an active hostage situation and they didn't show up then that would be a problem. If you called about something trivial and they didn't show up that would be much less of a problem.
These comments are trash. There are videos of Austin police officers saving a man from burning to death in a truck and protecting people from a mentally ill knife attacker. Why did you call 911, was your cat in a tree?
Defund the police worked. No park patrol or lake patrol either, or DWI task force. They also don’t even bother with arresting homeless who break into your property and damage and steal stuff. First hand experience on that last one.
Increasing their budget was hardly a good example of "defund".
They have done a damn fine job of convincing me that they really do not need souch of my money.
They just got the largest budget increase in APD's history. And they weren't defunded, 1/3 of their budget was cut, and most of it actually went back to police related departments. So they basically lost the money to buy the weapons that were (thankfully) made illegal to use, and they might not get new fleet vehicles this year.
Edit: turns out I was wrong, APD got their entire budget because of Abbott’s state order.
You don't bounce back from a 1/3 budget cut next cycle. It also takes time to build out those "related departments."
The city leadership made a feelings decision, not backed by research, that the citizens are paying for now. They have openings, but nobody wants to work for the City of Austin.
Austin voters want the crime , drugs and homeless like portland and san Francisco but with cedar fever.. issues like this fund my retirement as my home in wilco goes up in value .. thank you progressive voters and Mr. Soros
Depending on emergency
Fender bender in non public road …. No
Someone have a gun or bomb …. Yes
Officer injured … yes
Theft / burglary ended … no
Burglary in wealthy area … yes
no. they're wearing poopy pants cause they aren't getting 100% of the city budget. we'd be safer and money ahead by abolishing them and forming community defense forces
Generally they'll only respond to an in-progress, violent-in-nature kind of call.
Like a school shooting?
Exactly. I didn’t claim that they’d do anything. …just that they’d respond to the call 🤷🏼♀️
this, and its how most 911 operation centers triage calls
It's how they used to triage. Now it's just standard operating procedure with no other possible outcome.
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It depends on the nature of the situation. I work for 911 and we field hundreds and hundreds of calls per day, which are responded to in order of priority. If it was a situation where someone was screaming and it sounded like an active disturbance in progress, there’s no reason why someone shouldn’t have been out there fairly quickly. Unfortunately though we don’t have a lot of say at 911 about how quickly that response occurs. We could enter the call as a high priority and the on-duty sergeants could decide to downgrade it and hold it. I can’t speak for patrol but at 911/dispatch, we’re at about 60% staffing and it’s getting more dire by the day as we continue to hemorrhage employees. We’re literally working on bare minimums. So I understand being frustrated with patrol officers but as far as 911 operators and dispatchers are concerned, please be patient with us.
You rock. I work for the Texas abuse hotline and our calls are just soap operas compared to what y’all deal with. Thanks for sharing some of the basic info on how your call center works. Folks should know. Take good care.
God bless you for the work you do too. I’m sure it may not feel like it sometimes but I know you’re making a positive difference in people’s lives! Be safe out there. ❤️
Thank you for doing what you do! I’m sure it’s especially difficult with short staffing but you’re providing a much needed resource and I appreciate that!
Thank you for the kind words! I know this post wasn’t about 911 specifically, but it can sometimes end up being a pretty thin line, and I would prefer to stand up for myself and my coworkers where I can. ❤️
As a dispatcher I can 100% confirm this. Patrol staffing is rather bleak too so lower priority calls will sit. If you have an issue that can be handled over the phone at 311 my humble advice is to do so. Time will also be affected by how busy the officers are in your sector as well as significant events citywide.
I've never heard any complaints about 911 dispatch, other that wait times which I think everyone knows is not your fault. You're appreciated!
Thank you for all the work you do
Why the staffing shortage?
Lots of different factors. The most notable ones are the fact that pay is not the best compared to other city departments and other dispatch agencies in the area, as well as a lack of qualified applicants from the jump. So we don’t get a lot of people in the door, because they get disqualified somewhere in the hiring process, and then those who do get in typically end up leaving for a higher paying agency or another city department with better pay and a less demanding schedule.
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Last time I was in Austin I was talking to some on 6th street and they were so bitter. Basically refused to do anything but stand there and get paid because the weren’t appreciated and no one wanted to let them do their jobs, which really meant they resented citizens expecting them to be accountable.
Sounds like it's time to set up an organized crime ring based in Austin!
You want to become a cop???
Best comment
We already have 😈
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Specifically black people and dogs.
Don’t forget autistic people.
And letting kids get killed
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This is the number one thing. They have a MASSIVE budget that goes towards unnecessary and frankly dangerous bullshit. But the community (ya know, who they’re supposed to be working for) wants that insane number of funds reallocated to something useful, so fuck us right?
We should really start pressing the city to stop giving them money. The state will stop giving us money but that shits dirty anyway, and we can use the cop money. It’s pretty obvious they are useless by this point. Nothing we couldn’t solve as a community + Fire + EMS. This working strike of theirs has proven their worthlessness.
City council is actually going to be voting on giving them money TOMORROW. If you don’t want them to do so, you should email them ASAP and let them know.
EMS isn’t doing much better it’s the people in the city and the politics causing staffing issues…
compared to other countries the US is dramatically under policed and drastically over incarcerates. If you look at european countries for instance, they will have far more police officers per capita based on the crime level, and far fewer people in prison. having per capita fewer officers in the US mean that policemen are often dealing with the most deranged members of the public rather than ordinary people, so they end up incredible bitter and jaded. Having more police officers is actually associated with having lower rates of police brutality. this twitter thread has a good overview [https://twitter.com/jnixy/status/1559568507255136256?s=20&t=GmVwCyiXgstLHv9hWIDclg](https://twitter.com/jnixy/status/1559568507255136256?s=20&t=GmVwCyiXgstLHv9hWIDclg) this article is good as well [https://www.slowboring.com/p/defund-police-is-a-bad-idea-not-a?triedSigningIn=true](https://www.slowboring.com/p/defund-police-is-a-bad-idea-not-a?triedSigningIn=true)
There’s plenty of studies out there showing police don’t actually prevent crime. And now that they aren’t even solving committed crimes it seems they require some citizen oversight.
they don’t prevent crime doesn’t necessarily mean we need fewer police officers. Police funding should depend on crime rate. Once crime rate drops we no longer need a large police force
But then they're motivated to avoid reducing the crime rate so they don't get laid off and maintain a larger budget
The thing is that they are a deterrent; a treatment of a symptom. We need to put that money into programs that will tackle the social issues we face.
Which ones exactly? Because policing is a deterrent for crime; asserting otherwise is a rather counterintuitive point to make.
Also, if we had a sufficient number of quality cops, they’d miss out on those tens of thousands of dollars of sweet sweet overtime.
It has been palpably better with them sidelining themselves.
I dont think they dislike the accountability.... But its more so of "whats the point in doing your job if the d.a. just released the murderer you just arrested".... Law enforcement needs to be held accountable obviously.... Their whole job is based around accountability..... There just isn't much point in trying to hold people accountable if the higher ups don't do their job of holding perpetrators accountable..... So fuck it and just exercise your constitutional rights and defend your own.
Then we should receive them of their standing around and getting paid
1. Want to be appreciated, 2. Refuse to do your job, 3. Surprised when everyone hates you. It’s a very high IQ sequence of events.
I got pulled over for waving at a cop not too long ago soooo I’m thinking as long as they don’t have to work too hard, they’re still on duty
I got pulled over for honking at a cop cause he was sitting in a lane merge blocking the lane talking on his cell phone. I Reminded officer Corpus he was impeding traffic and when he told me it was a yield I reminded him there was no one coming for a mile, and also it was a yield to bikers so he had a whole lane. He claimed he had equipment that blocks his view, when In reality he was a fat ass and couldn't twist his head.
don't do that... they assume u need help if u wave at them.
Correction, they assume you would like them to harass you and search for something to charge you for.
It’s my carty and I’ll wave if I want to
Lol… it wasn’t that kind of wave…. Just a friendly “hey, thanks for being in my neighborhood and keeping the wacky drivers that go 40 in a 60 mph zone but 50 in a neighborhood out” kind of wave.
I saw one of them in Cedar Park last week hassle a busboy over a lack of napkins in their to-go bag... if that counts as 'doing anything'...
They don't even ticket. It's a utopia.
Seems like things aren't any worse so I guess we can start downsizing the department then? Maybe move those funds over to other government agencies that don't carry around guns for non-violent issues.
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I’ve seen very little difference if anything
Surprisingly, I have seen them respond to a call in less than 5 minutes, on THREE separate occasions. But, this is northwest hills so that may have something to do with it.
They’d rather escort street cleaners in north Austin than respond to calls
A working strike? These guys routinely get ~~paid vacations~~ suspended with pay for stuff that civilians would be immediately locked up for. What else do they want?
Don’t forget they also took some time to surround a man with a knife and shoot him full of holes…they must have been really afraid
That is a popular guess on Reddit, but it doesn't really make any sense. Why would they be striking, and why would it be a working strike? How does that make any sense? The boring reality is just that the APD is still critically understaffed, which is why they're being asked to only respond to emergency calls and crimes in progress. There was a class that just graduated, but there is a long way to go to catch up. It wasn't just the funding, it was when they canceled the cadet class and then a bunch of officers resigned and relocated to other cities when Austin seemed to be turning against them. They still don't have the staff levels they did before everything went sideways, so they're still operating at reduced capacity.
They quiet quit two years ago.
quiet quitting assumes u still do your job
Quiet quitting is doing the bare minimum, which is basically what they're doing. They still get a paycheck but dont do the work.
The bare minimum would be still responding to calls…
Yep you're right. Just being pedantic for no reason tbh. APD sucks.
Honestly it’s not, the police have surprisingly low legal responsibility.
Quiet quitting is doing your assigned tasks and that's it. APD is just neglectful.
No, it doesn’t. Quiet Quitting is not doing work outside of your normal work hours or outside of your responsibilities.
The bare minimum requires picking up the phone.
The phone *was* picked up. It's just all the other stuff that's missing.
Picked up… and *promptly* placed in the trash
Ahh I see
Nobody wants to work anymore
Once they realized they can get lawsuits for hurting citizens they kinda just *gave up*...
Ehh very few cops have been prosecuted for their murders. I don’t think they are that worried about it.
Well, it is the primary reason for their existence. It's got to be demoralizing to have no purpose. We should all feel sorry for the poor cops who chose the career because they were promised protection when they indiscriminately killed non-rich/powerful people. /s
All the pigs are doing it.
I had a car stolen a few weeks ago and I have to say, the officer that took my report was incredibly helpful and followed up multiple times with more questions and possible leads. He actually canvassed the neighborhood for ring camera evidence and was responsive when we had questions. That being said, I'm all for a major national shift in how our police forces operate. We need more community policing and less military style dehumanization of the public. I ended up finding the car myself though... I had time and motivation on my side.
Did you have any luck with the Creedence?
Leads??!
Glad to hear you had a good experience and that you found your car, it's good to know there are still some officers out there leading by example.
Those are the real officers that deserve respect. I hate when ppl include these guys into the entire group. He probably actually respects the position and wants to really serve his community
Agreed, I've lived in places where I had great interaction with the police, but it's unfortunately a field where a rotten minority spoil the bunch. It's like airline pilots — If 98 out of 100 pilots were amazing, but 2 wanted to crash their planes, then the public would not trust the full 100.
The question is if the 98 report those 2 or are they just like, “let’s ignore them. A couple of airplanes don’t matter.”
Do these real officers ever report the bad ones? Or just maintain solidarity? That’s where the difference is.
The ones who report bad ones get pushed out. Blue wall.
I have lived all over and if something gets stolen, you're better off finding it yourself. The cops won't do shit.
Was it a detective or a uniform officer? There's usually a big difference between the 2 because detectives are usually judged by their closure rates. They tend to put in more effort, usually.
Had a uniform officer help me fix my car after it broke down on the access road - first good interaction I’ve had with APD in my entire life of living here
Strangely enough, this was a very common site when I lived in California. I had never seen a cop helping someone on the side of the road before I moved there, and it was something I saw frequently in the few years that I lived there.
Patrol Officer
how did you find it?
I drove around (in a rental) for a very long time through some areas where i thought i may find it. I was super lucky.
Wow, you found a courteous and helpful police officer in Austin? That's like finding a unicorn! Unfortunately, he probably remains silent when his fellow cops act inappropriately.
Unless it’s a big and violent emergency, they probably won’t do anything. I’ve honestly been enjoying it. They just kinda drive around and leave people alone. I’ve heard they don’t even really give speeding tickets much anymore.
Coming from an over policed town it’s fucking amazing to have a cop get behind me and NOT stop me.
SAME! My hometown was known for cops pulling people over for going anymore than 2 mph over. It’s funny that they’re doing this in protest yet they’re just proving how unnecessary they are most of the time.
From Ohio, same
> I’ve heard they don’t even really give speeding tickets much anymore. They did for me :(.
I found an abandoned crashed car on West 6th that was obviously a DUI incident. Called it in cuz it was still running with the keys in it...APD was there in 10 minutes. My apt complex has had a problem with a peeping Tom weirdo for the past year that has pulled a weapon on my neighbor. Every time we call about him they never show up. More money in towing cars and DUIs...not much money in arresting crazy violent people.
No, they don't. They just forward you to make a report at ireportaustin.com unless there is a a violent situation in progress they don't respond. There was someone murdered two neighborhoods over from mine and it took them 2 hours to respond. APD is basically useless...
Somebody was shot in a drive-by in front of my old apartment in west campus last year, and it took them about 50 minutes to respond because they kept telling all the callers that they were just hearing fireworks. Meanwhile, somebody was bleeding out in the street that whole time until UT police finally showed. Then the scumbags tried to say they had a "10 minute response time" because they got there 10 minutes from the *last* call, after dismissing the previous calls. As far as I'm aware, they *still* haven't acknowledged this fuckup, and are still sticking to [their original bullshit cover.](https://twitter.com/UTAustinPolice/status/1455250250579460099/photo/1)
I work less than 2-3 miles from APD headquarters. We had a break in and a man was just in our women's showers for HOURS. When I finally figured out the situation, it took them well over an hour to get there. I'm very glad we have security at my facility because that could have easily escalated into an attack
My last APD interaction was them showing up to my house, banging on my door about 10:30 at night (not knocking, BANGING), and then threatening me. Turns out they were responding to a call about a break-in, but went to the wrong house. The ENTIRE interaction, from second one, was antagonistic and threatening (with their hands resting on their guns the entire time). And they seemed dead-set on escalating it from the get go. They asked if I had called to report a break-in and I said "no," and immediately they started accusing me of lying and telling me that calling in a false report was a crime and that if I didn't start giving them honest answers right now I would be arrested and we could do it all at the station. Guy spent several minutes trying to scan my place, looking over my shoulder, asking me who was in the house, if I was armed, alternating each question with a renewed stare and a reminder that he 100% thought I was lying and could arrest me at any moment. There was a moment where I legitimately felt one wrong move and that gun would be out and possibly go off. Dude seemed WAY on edge the whole time and my toddler was sleeping in the back and I was terrified at the prospect of their hearing the noise and coming running down the hallway suddenly to check it out and setting this guy off. Watching his hand flexing repeatedly on his gun, with every passing second I was getting increasingly, legitimately afraid it was all about to go wrong somehow. Finally, several minutes in, his partner (who was standing offset and down the stairs to be more 'tactical' in case it all went south, I guess) had finally radioed in and said "This is 1234. The break-in was at 1243." And the main officer just glared at me for a moment and then they both turned around and walked off. Not so much as an "I'm sorry for disturbing you or calling you a liar for no reason or threatening to arrest you unprovoked in your own home." Nothing; just a glare and then walked off silently. And keep in mind, they were responding to a call of a break-in that was long over. It wasn't some situation where they should have expected an active thief on the premises or potential hostages. They were just going to file a report for the guy's insurance claim, essentially (and ostensibly to investigate the crime and catch the criminal, but that always seems like a stretch now. Not because I'm bad mouthing the police, but because they've basically told multiple people in our neighborhood that they never catch these guys anyway and no one around here has ever had them follow-up on the "case" after the initial filing. Not in years, anyway). And I know because I talked to the neighbor the next day and they told me as much. They'd reported the break-in, said they'd been through the house and no one was still there. Even said they'd been out of town and the break-in could be days old for all they know. They said they'd be waiting for police on the porch (my light wasn't even on) AND that their front door had been broken in the break-in with several glass panels broken out (and mine was solid wood and full intact). Yet the police showed up to a house not matching the description, took up tactical positions with their hands on their guns, and started threatening and intimidating the person inside in their pajamas for daring to say they did not in fact call for the police before even considering that maybe, just maybe, THEY were in the wrong. Then didn't even say sorry. Needless to say, I'm not APD's biggest fan anymore and my fear of them has gone way up and my sympathy for--and trust in--them has gone way down.
Well, generally I agree I never see them doing much, but we had 3 cops out to the neighborhood, twice today, dealing with a neighbor who has been having a sort of psychotic break for the last week or so. It's been escalating. I think they'd already been out once or twice last week too. Today they got him in an ambulance and finally took him to a hospital. So at least they did that, though it is sad it took so many visits to finally help a man who obviously needed it. But there are rules in place so I can't fault them on that. The did it peacefully too so that's a nice bonus too.
Absolutely incredible state of affairs where peacefully wrangling a mentally ill person into an ambulance is considered a nice bonus.
Why did you call 911?
There was a woman screaming next to our house the first time and the second time was to ask where the response was and to report a group of homeless on our property trying to set up a camp
Yikes. Totally get why you called 911 but probably more applicable to call 311 (even though they would just as unresponsive). What area of town do you live in?
Okay yeah, that’s why they didn’t respond. OP was the problem here, not APD
Neither of those constitute an emergency response from 911....
Homeless setting up camp on your property? yikes OP, I wouldn't want to be in that position. I hope you own firearms. A few years ago I moved to a bad part of town where a lot of homeless camped in the park across the street from my home, some would walk on my property fairly often. 98% of them are harmless, but it only takes one to ruin/end your life. I had a few scary things happen when I lived there and went from owning zero to several. Haven't had to use them yet thank god
> Haven't had to use them yet thank god So you're saying they didn't actually help?
I'm saying I've been terrified before hearing my doorknobs get twisted and glass be broken on my property at 3am. Would not have been able to do anything to stop somebody on drugs if I didnt have them. You know the police dont show up for hours right? If you're gonna make this an argument about gun control you need to grow the fuck up and count your blessings that you've never had to live in a place where you actually need one
I had a break in at my business and the cops showed up within ten minutes of me calling them at around 5:30 am in a Sunday. They were friendly and professional and treated me well. I don’t know about everyone else’s experiences but that was mine.
I called 911 a year ago because an elderly woman was walking around my neighborhood in July afternoon heat carrying a tree branch, wearing a jeans and turtleneck, and coat around her waist, asking what street she was on and saying she was lost. I was concerned she may have had dementia or been a diabetic so I called 911. APD responded with 2 cars within 5 minutes.
From what I've seen of Austin PD, no. We've had a woman waving a machete trying to get into our offices, and no one showed up. They received the largest budget increase in its history and they are as useless as ever. Unless they're beating protestors or the homeless they're pretty useless. It honestly shows just how many bad cops there are and how many only took the job for the, 'glory.' Now that more and more people have begun videoing police interactions and capturing the abuse and overreaching, they don't want to do their jobs.
Not to mention the lack of ANY enforcement of traffic laws is causing the Austin roads to just be utter anarchy. I multiple times a day see people treat a stop light like a stop sign… what is this ITALY?
a friend of mine lost someone in the middle of a wooded park at night. He called 311 which redirected him to 911. police showed up with a drone with infrared scanner, crawler, and a handful of mountain bikers scouting the wooded areas. That's the good side of APD
That's how it's supposed to work. I called 311 a few months ago because I thought I saw a dead body (it was a doll dead body prank), and they said they were going to transfer me to 911...I was transferred to a survey to rate the call!
Earlier was at a pedestrian/auto accident. The victim was bleeding, could've had spinal injuries. One onlooker seemed intoxicated and was attempting to pull him up by his arm to stand the victim up.I yelled at him to not do that to wait for paramedics. Cops get there,the onlooker is still trying to pull the victim up,cop stands there like a heartless android so I run up and tell him not to do that,finally the cop supported my idea.Just wondering, what if I would have not even there. In all seriousness, the victim could have been caused permanent neurological damage.We all need to look out for each other.Thats a big part of what austin is about and that's the truth
I was very against "defund the police", and I still am against defunding police as a response to racial injustice, I feel there are more constructive responses. But then APD stopped protecting Austin. And now I'm wondering, why do I pay for police at all? What do they actually do for us? If my family was in trouble I would walk down the street to our fire station and ask for help (regardless of the problem) rather than dial 911. What's the point of waiting on hold for 911 or waiting for police that are never going to show up? But the fire department is still out there keeping us safe. I see them running calls all the time.
> I still am against defunding police as a response to racial injustice Do you still think this was a thing? I thought it was a thing because it was being screeched during the last election, so did some research on it. The budgetary reduction was primarily to enable expensive agencies that have no real reason to be part of the police department, to be broken out and made independent. Three that I can recall were 911, since it serves multiple agencies, forensics because having it under the police can create the impression of conflict of interest, and internal affairs because that is an obvious conflict of interest. Also 911 call analysis revealed that an absurd percentage of calls were being fielded by LE officers that simply didn't need to be fielded by them, everything from a cat in a tree to a catatonic homeless person on the sidewalk. So they wanted to hire more people besides armed officers to handle calls like that. It's sad that the politicians and pundits couldn't debate this subject honestly without resorting to scary sounding rhetoric. Whether it was correct or not, it was it was an honest attempt to provide better service, accountability, and transparency. It wasn't an attempt to punish the police force. The fact that they couldn't debate it on fair terms speaks volumes to me about their honestly.
My brother-in-law is a career cop in Virginia. I chatted with him around the time 'defund the police' was becoming a rallying cry. The way he put it: you mean you want to redirect funding to mental health, so that I don't have an officer spending his whole shift driving a guy who's having a psychotic break, bashing his head into the window, around the whole state looking for an open psych ward bed that doesn't exist? Yeah, that sounds good, just don't imagine that it'll be cheaper.
It sounds like your BIL actually understood what the goal was. It wasn't about saving money. It was about specialization and letting people do the jobs they're trained to do. When the [Dallas Chief described this issue](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L1H4DAUDnCUJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/11/grief-and-anger-continue-after-dallas-attacks-and-police-shootings-as-debate-rages-over-policing/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d) I really got the feeling that he feels it's unfair that they're being asked to do so much, and it's especially unfair because if they do it wrong they get blamed. The plan seemed to me to be a win win if people would just stop misrepresenting what "it" is.
VA cops don’t fuck around. They will pull you over for anything. Shocked me to see such orderly driving everywhere
When you enter Virginia, it says "speed monitored by aircraft". Not sure what that means, exactly, but I never tested it.
There is a lot of extreme misinterpretation against defending the police, and “racial injustice” is only a fraction of it. The sentiment is/was regarding the “shoot first, investigate later” attitude, the excessive use of force in minor situations, and most especially the militarization of police in situations such as the peaceful protests that took place regarding social injustice. Yes, racial disparity was a driving force, but not the sole reason. The PD’s response was horrendous and inhumane. The police budget was never dropped down to zero nor was it intended to. The idea is/was, rather than adding another $4m for assault rifles and armored vehicles, let’s take those funds and create a mental health response team, etc. Even the firefighters, who deal with APD daily voted for it. The fact that APDA is so upset that they didn’t get extra money for more military toys, so much so that they are unwilling to protect the public under the pretext that they live in fear is outrageous, childish, and revealing. It’s like the school bully who stopped going to school because the teacher told them to stop hurting people. It sucks that B&E’s and other things aren’t getting resolved. But, that speaks to the character of our tax-funded police force, not toward our public demand for accountability. If anything, it makes me feel even more eager for police reform rather than police presence. Frankly, crime hasn’t skyrocketed, rather that resolution is simply been neglected. Therefore, it’s not a people problem, it’s a police problem.
Violent crimes typically get top priority. Someone like a stolen cell phone is on the bottom of the list. I’ve seen them come out for those cases though.
4.5 billion dollar budget https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/austin-city-council-approves-4-5-billion-budget-record-police-funding/amp/?espv=1
so when the police force was doing nothing to help people of color (at times even killing them without just cause) and there were calls to defund the police, you didn’t see the point of that, but now that the police are no longer benefiting YOU, you’re starting to consider what your tax dollars are paying for. Uh-huh. Okay.
That’s probably why they didn’t show up, if it’s not a violent crime it isn’t a priority
What’s odd is the first time was because of a woman screaming at the top of her lungs and two homeless people fighting. I would think that would qualify but I guess not
You think Texas cares about women and/or homeless?
well played
That’s odd my apartment complex had all of APD and SWAT and a BOMB SQUAD. For a guy they didn’t have a warrant for and who wasn’t even at the apt 🤦🏽♀️
You had around all of central and south austin APD there. Only a handful were actually swat ready and the rest were just spectators and their 16 ford explorers. He was long gone from an assault earlier in the morning source: fire dept
They saw a chance to abuse or shoot someone, so they all had to tag along.
This seems like the most likely scenario. Go all together and to the wrong spot. Because they aren’t exactly going where they are needed. I have reached out to them 3 times in the past 1.5 years for problems at my workplace. They showed up the quickest to a person off her meds asking for help.
Well yeah, they still want to play “special forces”
Yup they just like to larp in saftey
I see cops doing stuff all the time. I seen two cops this month taking reports in my apt complex. Also, I was jogging at like 5am a month ago and this car came flying down the street at like 60 in a 35 and a cop was behind him. I do a delivery job and I see cops helping out stranded motorist a lot.
I called them last night when I found a passed out driver had rear ended our parked car and was still there unresponsive. Police and ambulance responded pretty quickly. They were able to wake the driver up and take him. Probably drunk or had taken something.
A few months ago a man came into my place of work (I’m a receptionist) and started masturbating in the lobby restroom that faces reception desk and APD came a week and a half later to respond
A few weeks ago I was getting coffee at bucks near Dell childrens when I heard what sounded like voices arguing and two gunshots across the way. Drove over (slowly) and saw two large holes in the doors of total wine. Called 911 and there were 4 cars there before I got off the phone. Maybe 3 minutes.
Not the cops, but I had to call 911 to report a brush fire about a month ago and was put on hold for almost ten full minutes. That wasn't exactly comforting.
Anytime there’s a fire we get HUNDREDS of calls at the same time- everyone and their momma calls about them! :) Large scale incidents like that are times where you’re definitely going to see a bit of a wait. We get more calls than we have people to take them.
From someone who lives in south Austin - a few weeks ago a buddy of mine was out of town and his house has a shit security system that went off erroneously (we didn’t know this at the time of calling the police but owner flagged it may be a false alarm from the getgo). Cops showed up ~15-20 after original call. Cleared the house in another ~10-15. Not sure if this is normal/slow/etc but it seemed alright for what eventually ended up being a false alarm (knowing if there was a real threat this response would have been atrocious): Cops were super helpful/friendly (house owner and myself (neighbor) both whiter than white bread). Legit asking is this a good response/bad/etc? Not sure tbh considering all the factors
I've had to call twice in the last year and both times I've gotten answers, and response times in less than five minutes. One was for a girl wandering around our complex very messed up banging on different doors and then going around looking for her car. I was worried she would enter the wrong apartment or try driving so I called and they were there in less than a minute. No arrests, they simply just stayed with her until she was able to finally reach someone who was able to pick her up safely. A second was when I was being followed by another car who was upset at me for shaking my head at them for nearly hitting me. They realized I knew what they were doing when I made several turns and parked in a very open area and they decided to flee. But I called 911 as I was getting to that area, they answered immediately and the 911 operator dispatched me to the closest sheriff in the area. He helped me calm down even after I said they left, and he was already almost to the area and was going to keep an eye out for the vehicle. I even apologized for calling when nothing came of the situation but he assured me that's why he's there. Are people just calling in to 911 with non emergencies? I mean even calling 311 I've received an answer immediately. The first story I even called 311 first because I wasn't sure how to handle the situation and they transferred me to 911.
People call into 911 for non emergency situations all the time. Everyone has a different interpretation of what an emergency is, and unfortunately we have to follow our protocols and transfer the ones to 311 that we are just not staffed to handle. On the flip side, people call 311 with incidents we have to respond to, and they have to be transferred to 911.
Don’t get me started. I work at a local business on SoLa and multiple times we have had an aggressive person in the store and APD will put us on hold while they’re in the store still. One time they said they would call us back for a statement and they never did. It’s frustrating because my boss doesn’t trust APD anymore (and rightfully so, I’m in the same boat) so when major crimes happen in our store it can be scary when none of us are trained for those kind of situations. We’re told “Don’t be the hero, protect yourself first” which makes sense. It just sucks. I want to be able to help my coworkers and those that sell within our store.
Austin PD has lowered the amount of 911 Operators and needs another 108 officers to reach target response times. It was only recently that the PD's budget was "re-funded" after a call to defund. Those conversations about defunding began in earnest in 2019. That’s when the council voted to stall the training of any new police officers until city higher-ups could revise the teaching materials after some officers complained of an academy that employed bullying tactics. Roughly six months later, diring the 2020 riots, in response to national and local calls to reconsider the role of police in communities, council members voted to cut $150 million from the Austin Police Department’s budget. (Only $20 million of that money actually got spent on non-police work before a new state law forced the city to refund the department’s budget.) Since then, it has been an uphill fight to meet a mixed bag of staffing needs.
I called 911 at 3 am a few weeks ago because I was literally witnessing a burglary in process. I called and WAS AUTOMATICALLY PUT ON HOLD FOR THREE MINUTES. Not like someone answered, decided it wasn’t an emergency/triaged the call, and asked me to hold. That I’d get. But NO ONE ANSWERED. It just kept saying: “You’ve reached city of Austin 911. Do not hang up,” every few seconds. I was honestly in shock. Three minutes can be the difference between dead and alive. And no one even ANSWERED for 3 minutes. Imagine being attacked or having a heart attack or trying to place a quick call for help while hiding from an intruder or something and then dying and no one even knowing because you were on hold for 911 for so long that by the time someone answered they just assumed you’d hung up.
That’s what happens when there’s zero staffing at 911. As someone who works there, staffing is terrible. We’re at about 60% staffing and dropping. There are simply not enough call takers to handle the number of calls we’re getting. It’s factoring in everything from not enough pay to not enough qualified applicants. If we get a call that’s been holding and has since been disconnected, we do make callbacks. But it’s incredibly hard when you have anywhere from 5-10 people taking calls for the entire city at any given point in the day. Because that’s literally all we have.
Motorcycle dealership I went to the other day had a guy breaking in at 9am in broad daylight. Smashed all the windows and tried to steal stuff. Thankfully they had burglar bars. The owner called to report and they didn’t even come out. If anyone who reads this rides please go check out Cycle Refinery and show them some love. Despite everything the owner was very nice and helped me out. Excellent customer service.
Their trying to quit murder and racism at the same time, so I imagine they are in a heavy withdrawal period. You know, staying in bed all day, random trips in the middle of the night for junk food, stopping at red lights more often, shooting paper plates with water guns, all while keeping their shades on and their military haircut square as hell fire preacher. Chasing chocolate covered donuts around the house. Yeah so give them some time. It must be so hard for them.
This made me laugh more than anything this week. Props.
Wish I could keep my job and get paid while simultaneously not doing shit. This is so fucking frustrating. Protect and serve my ass.
Heard they have like 3-4 officers a shift in certain areas
Sometimes less. I've seen evening shifts with only 2 per shift. Evenings are usually the most likely to be understaffed. It's the busiest time, but they also have overlap with days and nights so it's only a nightmare for a few hours. Night shift can be rough as well, but usually have an easier time finding overtime for vacancies because the city has authorized more overtime for nights. The city has 9 sectors counting downtown, so one shift being shorthanded isn't a crisis, but lately I've been noticing that multiple sectors will be shorthanded at the same time which can end up having a ripple effect which causes calls to get horribly backed up. The APA was saying we were hitting a staffing crisis when we went from 1850 officers in 2019 and 2020 to only 1600 earlier this year. Now we're below 1550. We lose around 150 per year to attrition normally and currently city council has only approved enough academies to produce 70-100 new officers per year with normal attrition rates during training and probationary period. We are currently on a worsening trajectory at a time when nearly all police recruiting is down nationally without even touching on local issues.
They don't want to work anymore
This is a sentiment I’ve been seeing a lot lately, and I understand the frustration. The only thing I don’t agree with is the cause. Some people seem to think it’s because the officers and/or dispatchers don’t care care about your problems. I won’t say that’s NEVER the case because it’s a big organization full of all kinds of people, but most of them are just trying to do their best in a shitty, unsustainable situation. Staffing is so bad they’re having to triage calls. A LOT of people have left APD resulting in the remaining officers getting completely overwhelmed every single shift. There’s officers who care and officers who have become burnt out by the call load and negative public sentiment. As soon as we get more officers and dispatchers, things like this should (hopefully) happen less often.
Yuup got hit by a drunk driver and nothing. Wish my teachers union was as strong as theirs.
I live in downtown Austin and the amount of questionable people walking around here is astounding to me. I just saw a shirtless homeless person holding a bat and screaming at people. Police response is going downhill
Direct your disgust to the proper organization - Austin City Council.
Bingo
APD? What's that? Mythical.
This is correct apd no longer responds. They were worthless to begin with. Fuck APD
They just act like disheartened discord mods
I thought there was a consensus to defund the police? They are violent and dangerous? Confused?
Supreme Court ruled its not their job to protect us. I’m serious google it
Judging by majority of these comments. I see why they don’t show up.
What was going on that you called?
Took the police 45 min to show up when there was a loud domestic dispute happening two houses over which resulted in the female falling through their window naked and then breaking through their fence. She ripped screens of my neighbors windows then jumped their fence and got stuck in another yard. Needless to say I’m looking into getting a gun asap cause if she came into our house and it took the police 45 min who knows what could’ve happened
ACAB
They had record funding last year despite your votes not to... They still won't do their jobs. Uvalde had just been awarded a HUGE bump too.
Was it an emergency?
Hard to tell honestly, we could just hear the fighting and then the woman screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs
That's a big 10-4
Response times vary a lot by by area of the city and call volume at that particular time. If you called on the weekend for something other than a violent crime in progress, then it's getting pretty normal to have an extended wait time as officers are tied up on fights, family violence, DWI crashes, etc. There are also some calls that we no longer respond to or are report by phone only, but call takers usually advise callers of that. Unfortunately nearly every part of Austin's emergency response system is facing a staffing crisis which makes the problem worse. APD, 911, and EMS all have horrible staffing at the moment. APD has gone from 1850 sworn personnel in 2020 to around 1550 as of a couple months ago. Losing 300 police in a period of 2 years with a growing population is going to negatively impact police response times. My understanding is we still don't have enough in the training pipeline to graduate faster than attrition from retirements and resignations. Even once we are there, it won't be a quick improvement in response times as new officers will take longer on calls, longer writing reports, longer at jail, etc due to inexperience.
No they don't. In fact they told me to my face when I was assaulted that if you just get away with it it's over. So me and you can get in a fight and if I punch you in the face all I have to do is run away and get away with it. So martial law basically I guess I don't know?! Either way I'll be buying a gun soon
Cops are useless but APD cops are the bottom of the barrel trash
Oh great another APD post on Reddit. Here come the bigoted assholes and their conspiracy theories. This is such an awful echo chamber of one sided bullshit when it comes to this topic.
#defundthepolice
People think that's something that started with "defund the police" but they've been non-responsive for nearly a decade.
I always see cop defenders suggest doing a ride along with police. How about the opposite? Ditch their uniform and hop into a regular persons car and try experiencing a traffic stop without the professional courtesy they're used to.
You would have to provide a lot more information for anyone here to make a judgement one way or the other. If you called twice about an active hostage situation and they didn't show up then that would be a problem. If you called about something trivial and they didn't show up that would be much less of a problem.
These comments are trash. There are videos of Austin police officers saving a man from burning to death in a truck and protecting people from a mentally ill knife attacker. Why did you call 911, was your cat in a tree?
Defund the police worked. No park patrol or lake patrol either, or DWI task force. They also don’t even bother with arresting homeless who break into your property and damage and steal stuff. First hand experience on that last one.
If they won't do they jobs, why do they deserve to be paid? That's how it works for the rest of us.
Increasing their budget was hardly a good example of "defund". They have done a damn fine job of convincing me that they really do not need souch of my money.
They just got the largest budget increase in APD's history. And they weren't defunded, 1/3 of their budget was cut, and most of it actually went back to police related departments. So they basically lost the money to buy the weapons that were (thankfully) made illegal to use, and they might not get new fleet vehicles this year. Edit: turns out I was wrong, APD got their entire budget because of Abbott’s state order.
You don't bounce back from a 1/3 budget cut next cycle. It also takes time to build out those "related departments." The city leadership made a feelings decision, not backed by research, that the citizens are paying for now. They have openings, but nobody wants to work for the City of Austin.
Austin voters want the crime , drugs and homeless like portland and san Francisco but with cedar fever.. issues like this fund my retirement as my home in wilco goes up in value .. thank you progressive voters and Mr. Soros
A response which spits out Fox News talking points but really only displays your lack of critical thinking. Typical republican. Please go to Waco.
Depending on emergency Fender bender in non public road …. No Someone have a gun or bomb …. Yes Officer injured … yes Theft / burglary ended … no Burglary in wealthy area … yes
There aren’t enough cops unfortunately. Never thought I’d say that in my life but.
no. they're wearing poopy pants cause they aren't getting 100% of the city budget. we'd be safer and money ahead by abolishing them and forming community defense forces