Austin City Council to receive briefing on DPS partnership
During the Austin City Council work session Tuesday, council members will receive an update on the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) collaboration with the Austin Police Department (APD).
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- During the Austin City Council work session Tuesday, council members will receive an update on the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) collaboration with the Austin Police Department (APD).
According to DPS, the AVCTF is a data-driven violent crime suppression task force composed of troopers, special agents and intelligence-level policing.
Some council members, like Vanessa Fuentes (District 2) and Ryan Alter (District 5), told KXAN they received questions and concerns from community members about the partnership. The initiative launches as a way to provide law enforcement reinforcement in the city as APD continues to face staffing shortages.
We will update this story as the meeting goes on.
Background on the DPS partnership
According to a memo Chief Joseph Chacon released last week, the department is still down about 300 officers. With DPS' help, police have been able to speed up response times, the chief said. Chief Chacon said it's still not enough help for APD to rebuild the specialized units that had to disband so officers could focus on high-priority 911 calls.
DPS' priorities in this partnership are focusing on high-crime areas and curbing dangerous traffic violations like speeding and DWI.
Chief Chacon has called the program "successful." According to his memo, violent crime has decreased about 25% across the city as a whole since DPS started patrolling in Austin, and in high-crime areas where DPS patrols more heavily - violent crime is down nearly 60%.
Some members of the community tell KXAN they feel some neighborhoods are getting unfairly targeted with traffic stops.
"I think it's important to remember that we are not looking at specific areas of town based on what demographics in that town look like, but rather where are the calls for emergency assistance coming in," Chief Chacon said last week. "Over time, what I expect to happen is you will see DPS actually move. As we displace crime that happens in certain parts of town to other parts of town, well then we'll move, and we're always going to let the data guide us."