Austin On Verge Of Disaster After Defunding Police

A big chunk of Austin, Texas, went without a single police officer to provide public safety coverage for a few hours one Saturday in February, leaving residents in a fury over police department staffing shortages and longer wait times for a response after calling 911 as a result of the Austin City Council’s decision in 2020 to defund the police department.

Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock told Fox News Digital that the progressive defund policy is endangering the city. He said the result has been a steady decline in public safety around Austin and warned that the city is on the brink of disaster.

“Previous councils and leadership have actively worked against our officers and department, which has now put us in a free-falling staffing crisis,” Bullock warned.

“Twice now we’ve had our contract voted down or it has been allowed to expire,” Bullock told Fox. “Each year since 2017, we’ve lost more officers than we’ve hired. We had to gut our specialized units and force detectives to work backfill on patrol just to try and respond to 911 calls.”

The Austin police department nearly collapsed entirely in 2023 after 40 officers filed their retirement papers because of a 9-2 vote in the city council to cancel four-year contracts after previously agreeing to them and switching to one-year contracts for officers.

“As a result, our staffing has been set back at least 15 years, and at the same time we’ve dealt with a population growth of over 250,000 new residents,” Bullock said. “Combine that with a district attorney who has made it very clear that targeting officers and releasing criminals is his priority – not public safety.”

Lauren Klinefelter, a resident of Austin, said the days are “long gone” when you could call 911 in an emergency and expect someone to answer and send help.

“We needed an ambulance and some emergency assistance because not only was my car totaled, but my children were both bleeding and visibly injured,” she said. “I called 911 and, to my surprise, it rang and rang endlessly, only to be routed to a 311 operator for non-emergencies.”