AUSTIN, Texas — Cities across the U.S. are seeing increasing numbers of violent crimes involving guns.
In Austin, 2021 already notched 40 murders, compared to 23 homicides by the end of June 2020.
To combat the rise in crime, President Joe Biden announced a national strategy on Wednesday.
"Cities experiencing an increase in gun violence were able to use the American Rescue Plan dollars to hire police officers needed for community policing and to pay their overtime," President Biden said.
Austin received more than $230 million in American Rescue Plan funding. Most of it has already been spent or earmarked already, including $44 million for COVID-19 relief, $84 million to address homelessness and $35 million for rent assistance.
"Additional funding for community violence intervention efforts, additional money in helping kids find jobs," Austin Mayor Steve Adler said on Good Morning America on Wednesday, "there's a lot that the president could do that would be really helpful."
During Adler's live interview on Wednesday on GMA, he noted the efforts of Austin police to remove illegal guns from city streets.
"Cities, communities across the country need additional resources with local law enforcement to be able to find these illegal weapons," Adler said. "We need more help with red flag laws across the country to prevent people that shouldn't have weapons getting them."
Within the Austin Police Association, President Ken Casaday said it's one thing to take these weapons off the streets and arrest the people responsible, but law enforcement and judicial systems must go one step farther.
"You can take all the guns you want you off the street, but if you continue letting them out of the court system ... we're going to get nowhere and it's just going to get worse," Casaday said. "When you commit violent crime, you need to go to jail. And if it's violent enough, you need to go to prison. And right now, we're not seeing that. What we're seeing is a revolving door of people."
Last week, Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon announced 78 illegal firearms were seized and 44 people arrested. KVUE reached out to provide context, but Austin police did not respond Wednesday afternoon.
President Biden added prioritizing the seizure of illegal firearms starts with community policing, including hiring more police officers.
"It means more police officers, more nurses, more counselors, more social workers, more community violence interrupters to help resolve issues before they escalate into crimes," the president said.
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