AUSTIN, Texas — Fifteen Austin ISD Police Department officer positions will be cut by the school district as part of districtwide staff reductions.
AISD said the positions cut are already vacant and the number of school resource officers (SRO) will not be impacted by the reductions. The district said it will have 76 sworn officers in the district police department for the 2022-23 school year.
The number of officers for the upcoming school year will allow positions at the high school and middle school campuses to be fully staffed and provide daytime patrol coverages. The school district added that night patrol officers will be assigned to a campus or daytime patrol.
"Our teachers are trained in social-emotional learning, and our doors automatically lock. We do whatever it takes every day to keep our kids safe," AISD said in a statement to KVUE about the cuts.
KVUE first asked about the AISD Police Department staff reductions last Wednesday during an interview with the Acting Chief Beverly Freshour.
The day after the Uvalde school shootings, we wanted to know what Central Texas school districts were doing to protect students, teachers and staff in the aftermath of the shootings. It was during that interview that the AISD media manager prevented Chief Freshour from answering our questions.
Here's a look at that interview in its entirety:
The 15 officer positions cut by the district amount to $1.4 million, the district reported.
According to the police department website, AISD police employs 89 full-time officers, including 43 SROs, 20 patrol officers and two mental health coordinators. Two SROs are assigned to every high school campus and one at every middle school campus. The department also employs 39 civilian staff.
The school board previously discussed the budget deficit the district faces and said several hundred positions will be cut to make up for the deficit. The positions cut include central office and campus positions around the district. You can see all of the positions being cut here.
News of the proposed cuts, which are set to be finalized later this month, comes a week after the mass school shooting in Uvalde. In the tragic shooting, 19 students and two teachers were killed when a gunman opened fire in a classroom at Robb Elementary School. It is the deadliest school shooting in Texas history and the deadliest in the nation in nearly a decade.
Officials have said responding officers, as many as 19, waited outside of the classroom the gunman was in for nearly an hour. That happened as children inside the classroom called 911 for help.
The Texas Rangers and FBI are now investigating the incident and law enforcement's response.
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