AUSTIN, Texas — Austin’s public safety departments are asking for major funding increases in next year’s budget.
The Austin Fire Department (AFD), Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) and Austin Police Department (APD) all made proposals to Austin’s Public Safety Commission on Monday.
“The lack of priority that we’re starting to see in public safety has some real negative outcomes, and these are starting to manifest,” Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Firefighters Association, said.
Austin Fire budget increases
Nicks said with the growth of the city, crews that used to do five or six runs per shift are having to now do 20 to 30 runs per shift. And because they have to fill every unit, every shift, he said it’s been detrimental to firefighters’ mental health.
“We have a very, very bad trend in firefighter mental health,” Nicks said. “We’ve had three suicides in the last several years.”
AFD proposed major budget increases to help staff two aerial trucks and make sure they have enough personnel overall. Nicks said the city of Austin hasn’t put an aerial ladder in service since 1995, when the city was half its current size.
“We are not covering our neighborhoods and cities as good as we should,” Nicks said.
Austin-Travis County EMS budget increases
ATCEMS had been short-staffed for quite some time, but the Austin EMS Association said ever since it passed its contract and increased wages, staffing has improved.
However, ATCEMS doesn’t think the city has been making the best use of medics.
APD has crews patrolling Downtown Austin on weekends, but there are no dedicated medics in that area.
“At any given point, at like, 2 a.m. on a Friday night, we’re pulling in at least 10 of our neighborhood ambulances – and we only have 40 of them,” Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS Association, said.
During South by Southwest every year, ATCEMS has a dedicated crew of medics to help out. But the EMS Association wants that to remain year-round. Xie said they also want more medics in the Rainey Street area, citing last year, when medics patrolled the area for some time after numerous deaths at Lady Bird Lake, and how they were able to help many people.
“We had two paramedics on Rainey Street actually stopping people from being drunk and stumbling over to the river,” Xie said.
Xie said by having dedicated resources in these popular downtown spots, it would allow the surrounding areas not to lose resources.
“Right now, we’re sending a quarter of our fleet downtown, when we should just have 12 medics that are stationed downtown just on the weekend nights providing care,” Xie said.
ATCEMS is also asking for a dedicated ambulance to serve the Domain area, as its nightlife scene has grown in the last few years.
There are also two other locations ATCEMS wants to have more dedicated medics: the lake and the airport.
There are currently police patrolling the lake on the weekend, but no dedicated medics to patrol all of the heat and intoxication calls that typically come from out on the water. Over at the airport, there are eight firefighters on location 24/7, but only two medics are present, for 12 hours per day.
Xie said because most travelers don’t want to leave the airport to go to the hospital, it would be helpful to have medics on site during all hours of travel to help.
“It keeps the neighborhood ambulances responding to the neighborhoods, and it allows paramedics who have specialty training to help folks that are flying in and out,” Xie said.
Austin Police budget increases
Both ATCEMS and APD are asking for more money to staff more 911 call takers. Xie said they have not increased the minimum number staffing of call takers and dispatchers for over 20 years, even though call volume has increased by 20%.
She said when there is a high call volume, a dispatcher will get the address where the emergency is, then send an ambulance and disconnect to get to the next call. Normally, dispatchers would spend more time on the phone doing advanced triage so crews know exactly what kind of emergency they’re responding to.
Some other asks APD has include more funding for public information officers, sex crime investigations and marketing for officer recruiting efforts.
The Public Safety Commission approved each of the recommendations on Monday. Each public safety department plans to provide a final budget proposal in a few weeks.