AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin City Council recently voted to cut millions of dollars from the Austin Police Department – $150 million to be exact. And while many people have questions regarding how exactly the money will be used, the Austin Police Association took to Twitter to share its thoughts on the vote.
As it stands now, the budget will take $80 million and separate certain functions from APD, such as the 911 Call Center and Special Investigations Unit. The remaining $49 million in cuts will defund APD units including mounted patrol, traffic enforcement and lake patrol. That money would be put on hold as council members "reimagine" public safety over the course of a year. Nearly a fifth of that extra money, or $21 million, will go toward things such as violence prevention and permanent housing services. You can find a list of some of the department's units that were cut or reduced here.
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"We agree policing should be reimagined. We believe #atxcouncil should imagine properly staffing @austin_police sexual assault, stalking, indecent exposure, extortion, harassment, burglary for sexual motive, and window peeping investigations. It’s long overdue," the association wrote on Twitter.
Along with the post was a photo that said, "There are 500,000 women in Austin. APD has 19 detectives to investigate all crimes of a sexual nature. That's one detective for every 26,000 women."
During an interview on KVUE Daybreak on Aug. 17, Mayor Steve Adler answered some of the top questions regarding the APD's budget cuts.
"We didn't take $150 million out of the police budget," Adler told KVUE. "What we're doing is more measured, and even the things that we said that we wanted to do are undergoing a review process right now."
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