In what could be a future model for other red states with deep-blue cities, Texas is prepared to change radically how the city of Austin conducts its law enforcement.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is moving forward with a plan to wrestle control away of the Austin Police Department from local authorities. The move comes after the Austin City Council passed a resolution in August to cut the police department’s budget by $150 million, citing the shootings of unarmed minorities and alleged brutality by the force.
The Austin bill constituted one of the most radical in the country, slashing law enforcement’s budget by roughly a third. Much of that money was reallocated to civilian departments and the creation of the “Reimagine Safety Fund,” which is tasked with “alternative forms of public safety and community support through the yearlong reimagining process.”
“Extreme, anti-civil rights voices will try to send us backward and are already working (to) mislead people about this vote,” Austin Councilman Gregorio Casar said on Twitter after the new police budget passed. “But today, we should celebrate what the movement has achieved for safety, racial justice, and democracy.”
Its passage immediately sparked backlash from Republicans in the state, including Abbott, who called the bill a threat to public safety.
Four months later, the governor has opted to flex his muscle and begun working with the Texas Legislative Council on a bill to transfer all control of the Austin Police to the state’s Department of Public Safety. The body has yet to pass the bill, but an individual familiar with the legislation said a vote could be held by Christmas, with most Republicans prepared to support it.
“The state will fix this,” Abbott wrote on Twitter this week. “Texas will pass a law this session supporting law enforcement and defunding cities that defund the police.”
The state’s lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, called Austin “a disaster” and “one of the most dangerous cities in America” in October and backed Abbott’s proposal.
Austin council members have pushed back on the move, calling it “authoritarian” and a distraction from larger problems in the city.
“Austin is the safest big city in Texas and one of the safest in the country,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement to a local outlet. “Not surprising the President’s rhetoric is finding its way to Texas as we get closer to November.”
Several other cities, including Los Angeles, New York, and Minneapolis, cut police budgets following a summer of social unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by a Minneapolis police officer. All of those cities have experienced a wave of rising crime, which conservative critics blame on left-wing prosecutors and city governments hellbent on demoralizing law enforcement.
Despite Democrats in the city pointing to Austin’s slightly lower overall crime rate in 2020 (a 1% decrease from 2019) rising homicides have led to scrutiny from federal officials. New data from the U.S. Attorney’s Office found that homicides in the city have increased 54% from the previous year, with aggravated assaults up 13%.
Last week, U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer announced a new initiative from the Department of Justice called Operation Undaunted, which will increase cooperation between local law enforcement and the federal government to root out gun violence.
“When you defund the police, relax enforcement of existing criminal law, and release repeat offenders and violent criminals into our streets, increased violence is exactly what you can expect,” said U.S. Attorney Sofer in a statement. “Despite the challenges of the coronavirus and the unfair vilification of the entire law enforcement community, we remain undaunted in our commitment to protect the residents of central and west Texas.”
Outside of wrestling control of the city’s police department, Abbott has proposed stopping the city’s ability to raise property taxes should it not reverse its budget cuts to the police department. Legislatures in the state are expected to take up that initiative in the new year.
“Any city that defunds police departments will have its property tax revenue frozen at the current level,” Abbott said in August. “Cities that endanger residents by reducing law enforcement should not then be able to turn around and go back and get more property-tax dollars from those same residents whose lives the city just endangered.”
