AUSTIN, Texas — A new report is highlighting concerns about drugs, violence and allegations of illegal activity in Austin’s Sixth Street Entertainment District.
For the past year, the Pecan Street Owners Association (PSOA) has been investigating alleged illegal after-hours alcohol sales and drug deals on the street. Back in March, they hired the owner of Vicio Security and Investigations, Marcus Stokke – who is also a former Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) supervisor – to go undercover at several Sixth Street bars.
“We would go over to the unlicensed clubs, after-hours clubs, and we would work those usually 'til about 4 or 5 in the morning,” Stokke said.
Stokke and his team investigated several licensed and unlicensed bars from March 21 to 23 and March 28 to 30, 2024, from around 10 p.m. to around 4 a.m. each night.
In Texas, it is illegal for bars with a "late hours" permit to serve alcohol in public after 2 a.m. But as Stokke observed, once it hit 2:15 a.m., the time when Texas law makes it illegal to consume alcohol in public, several of these “after-hours" unlicensed clubs opened and continued to serve alcohol.
“They stay in those bars and can really drink until daylight,” Stokke said.
Another major finding was alleged drug deals taking place on the street and a major drug presence inside the bars.
“The drug activity – especially the serious drug activity, including heroin and fentanyl and those things – need to be enforced,” Stokke said.
From his observations and conversations with people on Sixth Street, Stokke believes a contributing factor to all the alleged illegal activity is people driving in from out of town to party outside on the shut-down street.
“People are literally driving there with their own alcohol and drugs and just having a big street party,” Stokke said. “I would say it’s time to probably open the street back up to where that criminal element can’t just flourish right there like that anymore.”
Since the PSOA brought its concerns about illegal activity occurring on Sixth Street to the TABC back in March 2023, the TABC told KVUE it has been conducting several of its own undercover investigations. All of those investigations are still currently open, so the TABC was not able to release any more information about the content of them until they are completed.
The TABC also said it has been working with local law enforcement on additional ways to address these concerns while the investigations are ongoing.
Robin Henderson, interim chief of police for the Austin Police Department (APD), responded to the PSOA’s investigation Friday afternoon, saying that APD appreciates the PSOA’s efforts to investigate and report on these incidents and will be sending the report to the appropriate units for follow-ups.
Austin City Councilmember Zo Qadri (District 9) said in a statement to KVUE that these alleged incidents are also something council is looking into.
"I host a quarterly public safety meeting to facilitate conversations between businesses, Austin Code Department and the Austin Police Department to address various safety and health concerns in the downtown area," Qadri said in the statement. "The after-hour concerns have been raised to the appropriate departments and I will continue conversations on active solutions with our state and local agencies to address this issue."