Downtown Commission hears SXSW safety preparedness report

No one likes to think about worst-case scenarios turning large public events into devastating havoc, but such is the business of planning for major festivals like South by Southwest. Lessons learned from past events – the 2020 pandemic, the 2014 vehicular tragedy and various crowd-control incidents in other years – have helped shape a system in which over-preparedness is a rule of thumb for organizers and first responders.

At Wednesday night’s meeting of the Downtown Commission, representatives of the Austin Police Department and the city’s Austin Center for Events provided a rundown of safety preparedness for this year’s festival, which runs March 8-16.

Last year’s event drew an estimated 345,000 people to the festival and, based on its growth in attendance each year, more people are expected this year.

According to the presentation, police staffing will be at 100 percent for the duration of the event, with additional patrols on Congress Avenue, the Warehouse District, West Sixth Street and the Rainey Street District. Other APD divisions on alert will include the Counter Assault Strike Team, mounted police, the bomb squad, special response team, the Organized Crime Division and tactical units. Crews and rescue vehicles from the Austin Fire Department and Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services will also be staked out at a specially designated public safety site on Neches Street.

Recognizing Texas’ relaxed laws on carrying firearms, Commissioner Ralph Ishmael Jr. questioned how police can discern whether an armed individual is suspicious. APD reps said they work closely with bar owners and managers to make sure weapons aren’t getting through the door. Outside the bars, law enforcement officers look for imprints in people’s clothing to determine if a gun is holstered, as state law requires. APD’s firearm violation statistics for last year’s festival show 61 seized firearms and 131 arrests for gun-related violations.

On the whole, downtown crime incidents year-round still remain below pre-pandemic levels, Commander Jeff Olson told the commission. “Month-to-month fluctuations are normal and to be expected, although there are notable spikes every March with SXSW and the spring festivals, which bring tens of thousands of extra people to our city,” he said.

About 15 crime incidents occurred on any given day in the downtown sector during 2023, down from about 20 per day in 2019, before the pandemic. Property crimes last year saw a slight uptick over 2022, but, as with other types of crime, they remained below 2019 numbers. Simple assault and theft are the most common violations, with two emerging trends – pickpocketing and auto theft – increasing above pre-pandemic levels, Olson said. Pre-pandemic auto thefts downtown amounted to roughly six cases in 2019, while that number rose to about 13 in 2021, 15 in 2022 and back down to 14 in 2023.

“Auto theft has been increasing steadily,” Olson said. “That’s a problem throughout the city of Austin and nationwide. Over the past five years, the rise in the downtown area – while significant – has been somewhat smaller compared to other areas of the city.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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