The Austin Police Department has said for many years that its staffing levels were too low, at times even critical. On Friday, 48 new officers were commissioned as part of the 140th cadet class, but even with the two-dozen fresh faces, the department still finds itself in a staffing bind.
Prior to Friday, APD said it was short by 149 officers.
“Basically, cutting it by a third, which is a good step in the right direction,” Assistant Chief Joseph Chacon told the Public Safety Commission at its May meeting.
Chacon said the shortage is also playing into growing response times, which are only exacerbated by parts of the city in which officers must span larger geographical areas.
“There may not be officers available, we have to call from another sector to come over,” Chacon said. “Especially when you start pushing into West Austin, it’s a large landmass. Sometimes it takes time to maneuver over to wherever that address is.”
Another side-effect of the staffing shortage is overtime. Public safety spending comprises 70-percent of Austin’s annual budget, and APD has to earmark some of that for overtime pay. However, as APD remains short-staffed, it has already blown through nearly 90-percent of its overtime budget for the fiscal year ending in September.
Late last year, Chief Brian Manley won city council approval for a four-year staffing plan involving the hiring of 123 new employees at APD, including patrol, investigative, and civilian positions.
Manley told KLBJ on May 1 he is watching two property tax bills at the Capitol very closely because they could impact Austin’s public safety budget. According to Mayor Steve Adler, public safety cuts would most likely be the first to be made. Manley worries how that would impact his four-year staffing plan.
