City council votes to slash $150 million from Austin Police Department, approves

[Ptarmigan]

City council votes to slash $150 million from Austin Police Department, approves city budget
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-police-budget-cuts-austin-city-council-defund/269-9041efe4-5055-4eb0-aa21-dada5b8f4aec

AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin City Council has chopped $150 million from the Austin Police Department's budget, roughly 34% of the department's $434 million total budget.

The move comes after months of racial justice protests throughout the city, calling for defunding the police.

Going into Thursday's budget discussions, the council was considering slashing the department's $434 million budget by about a third, or $150 million. Nearly a fifth of that extra money, or $21 million, will go toward things such as violence prevention and permanent housing services.

Austin has slashed a third of funding for police. Here is what is being cut.

These are some of the police department units that were cut or reduced during the budget approval:

911 Call Center - $17.7 million
Forensic Sciences - $12.7 million
Support Services - $14.1 million
Community Partnerships - $2.5 million
Victims Services - $3.1 million
Internal Affairs - $4.5 million
Special Investigations - $1.8 million
Special Events - $4.4 million
Mounted Patrol - $2.1 million
Traffic Enforcement - $18.4 million
Austin Regional Intelligence Center - $2 million
Park Police - $5.8 million
Lake Patrol - $1.4 million
Organized Crime/K-9 - $1.2 million
Nuisance Abatement - $312,000
Canceling 3 Cadet Classes - $2.2 million this year
Officer Overtime - $2.8 million
License Plate Readers - $133,000
In a press conference Thursday evening, Police Chief Brian Manley said the cuts would not change patrol levels.

It is not just police being cut. 911 call center, internal affairs, and victim services. So quixotic!

[Eupher]

It's really thoughtful of the Austin City Council to cut the cops' budget by more than a third. But they shouldn't have stopped there. They should've got right ahead and cut the administrative costs with running a city by a third as well. I know! Let's cut the numbers of city councilcritters by more than a third too!

Who needs a city council when you don't need cops?

[DLR Pyro]

Are they going to cut the property taxes by 1/3 seeing as how the residents will be getting 1/3 less protection and services...?

[Ptarmigan]

Let's just disband the government while we are at it.

[Ptarmigan]

Texas Governor Proposes Freezing City Property Taxes Following ‘Defund Police’ Actions
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/08/18/texas-governor-proposes-freezing-city-property-taxes-following-defund-police-actions/

Texas Governor Greg Abbott proposed legislation for the next session to freeze the property tax rates of any city that moves to “defund police.” The move would prevent municipalities like Austin from raising its property tax rate after taking action to defund their own departments.

Texas Republican leaders traveled to Fort Worth to meet with Mayor Betsy Price regarding funding for law enforcement operations. The meeting follows actions by the Austin City Council to strip nearly one-third of that city’s law enforcement budget as part of the “Defund the Police’ movement.

Abbott and the assembled legislators announced plans to introduce a bill in the next session of the Texas Legislature that will severely punish any city that moves to defund its police department by putting a freeze on the city’s current tax rate. Cities subject to this action by the state would not be allowed to raise their property tax rates to raise additional funds. The next session of the Texas Legislature begins in January 2021.

“Any city that defunds its police department will have its property tax revenues frozen ” Governor Abbott warned.

Why not? Bring it! Cities that defund police should lose funding.

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) joined the governor and other state leaders in meeting with Mayor Price. The entourage included Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton) and Republican legislators from Tarrant County — State Senators Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) and Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) and State Representatives Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth), Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth), and Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake).

Lt. Governor Patrick slammed the leadership of Austin and pledged to make the proposed legislation a priority in the upcoming session.

Patrick said the city of Austin did not turn into the chaos of Portland and Seattle “only because of our Department of Public Safety troopers.” He said the city not only defunded the police department but stripped officers of key weapons needed to disburse crowds.

Patrick also cited the incident in Weslaco, Texas, on Monday where the presence of two police officers who quickly responded to a call in a Walmart regarding a man with a gun stopped that gunman from killing innocent residents. Patrick said the gunman was also confronted by a private citizen with a concealed carry permit.