If you’ve noticed an uptick in people speeding past on on Austin roadways and wondered where APD was, well, you won’t see motorcycle cops enforcing traffic laws in Austin anytime soon. This week, the Department reallocated the personnel from the Highway Enforcement Division to patrol shifts. This was the unit responsible for helping motorists who were in collisions, investigating fatal crashes, and enforcing traffic laws on Austin roadways.
This comes after June’s disbanding of the DWI unit. Staffing at APD has been free-falling after the Austin City Council’s decision to suspend future Austin Police Department cadet classes and cut 150 positions from 1959 to 1809. Without new officers entering the department and one to two dozen retiring or leaving each month, APD has been disbanding various units and departmental services to continually refill patrol shifts.
While the official talking point is that the disbanding of the units is “temporary,” the one current cadet class won’t finish until 2022, and those officers won’t be ready off of field training status until late spring 2022. By then, more officers will have left APD than the next cadet class will replace.
With an exploding population and dwindling police staffing, response times for the highest-priority calls climbed 30% year over year to over nine minutes (the goal is over six minutes). Although the department announced that, “traffic enforcement will continue to be a responsibility of all APD officers,” it is unlikely this duty will materialize until staffing supply can catch up to staffing demand.
No wonder I see people running red lights at busy intersections! This is so dangerous to drivers and passengers of other cars!!! Who us going to care for victims?