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Travis County DA hiring more staff after last year's record-high Austin homicides

Austin had 89 homicides in 2021, the most it has had in history in raw numbers.

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza is hiring at least six new employees to help prosecute homicide cases after last year's record-high number of cases in Austin.

Travis County commissioners this week approved Garza using about $700,000 in salary savings from his office for the positions, which Garza said will be temporary and continue through September 2023. Separately, he said he will ask commissioners to approve several additional positions for his office later this year, but not all will be for homicide cases.

Austin had 89 homicides in 2021, the most it has had in history in raw numbers. However, the highest per capita was in the 1980s and 1990s.

Garza's office wrote in a budget request that the office has about 118 pending homicide cases from last year, with several additional cases coming from suburban departments. For comparison, the office had an average of 68 new cases for each of the previous three years.

Austin's surge in homicides was part of a national wave of violence, much of it linked by experts to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garza said that he hopes that the number of homicides will decrease through multiple efforts, including the City's violence prevention office.

Austin so far has had 20 homicides, compared to 23 for the same period last year. Meanwhile, the Travis County Sheriff's Office is investigating seven so far this year.

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