It turns out policy is more than just theory -- it has tangible consequences once it becomes reality.
The city of Austin, Texas \-- the famously blue capital of the red state -- is descending into a nightmare situation to the shock and fear of locals.
The "defund the police" movement went from slogan to official action taken by the City Council in 2020, setting Austin on a trajectory of increasing difficulty and decreased safety and services.
The city has become so thinly stretched in its police force that a section of the city was without a single patrol officer during a Saturday shift in February, according to Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock.
Staffing woes continue. Due to our staffing being at 2006 levels, an entire sector in East Austin went two hours without a patrol officer assigned to the sector today. Our backfill shift made up of detectives and specialized units pulling double duty had to provide coverage.
— Michael Bullock (@MBullockATX) February 18, 2024
Bullock told Fox News that the dwindling police force and the pullback of public safety measures have Austin on the "brink of disaster."
Last year, the City Council voted 9-2 to scrap a four-year police contract in favor of a one-year contract that already had been rejected by the police union's board -- a move that prompted 40 officers to file retirement papers, the outlet reported at the time.
The mass retirement put the Austin Police Department on the verge of a staffing collapse -- and the situation hasn't improved, Bullock said.
“Previous councils and leadership have actively worked against our officers and department, which has now put us in a free-falling staffing crisis,” he warned. “Twice now we’ve had our contract voted down or it has been allowed to expire.
"Each year since 2017, we’ve lost more officers than we’ve hired. We had to gut our specialized units and force detectives to work backfill on patrol just to try and respond to 911 calls.”
Bullock said that "as a result, our staffing has been set back at least 15 years and at the same time we’ve dealt with a population growth of over 250,000 new residents. Combine that with a district attorney who has made it very clear that targeting officers and releasing criminals is his priority -- not public safety."
Austin ranks as the 10th-most-populous city in the United States.
In August 2020, the City Council voted unanimously to slash the police budget by one-third -- $150 million -- with a pledge to reinvest funds in other community services.
Although the Texas Legislature passed laws to prevent such sweeping measures, the police officer shortage in Austin persists.
Two examples of the dire situation were cited by Fox News: After waiting an hour for help to arrive after a car accident, a mother had to turn to Lyft to transport her bleeding children to the hospital; and Doug Kantor, a young man visiting Austin on a trip to celebrate earning his master's degree, was killed in a shootout by rival gangs.
Nick Kantor, Doug's brother, said his family discovered that the "anti-gang task force, along with most of the preventative crime measures, were the ones that were defunded."
"I think it’s pretty clear that their policies epically failed, and ultimately killed my brother along with hundreds of other people," he said. "And instead of accepting that they made a mistake and doing their best to make it right, they have chosen [to] ignore the statistics and continue to come up with more ways to dismantle the Austin Police Department."
