Austin has been grappling with a serious police understaffing problem, making patrolling the downtown area harder. In an effort to fill that gap, the Downtown Austin Alliance created a new safety team to hit the streets.
The DAA, a nonprofit organization that manages the Downtown Public Improvement District, began the effort in May and has tripled the size of the team since its launch.
First things first. Members of the safety team are not police officers, but they do collaborate with the Austin Police Department. You can identify members of the safety team by their black and yellow uniforms.
“You’ll see them riding throughout the public improvement district on bikes and generally in pairs, one on either side of the street,” said Brandon Fahy, director of Public Space Experience for the DAA.
The team had 14 members as of July 1. From 6 to 10 p.m., the officers patrol the PID from the Texas Capitol to Lady Bird Lake.
Their main focus is low-level violations – specifically class C misdemeanors, such as public intoxication and lying on a public sidewalk – that Fahy says are on the rise downtown.
If the team sees someone in violation, their first step is to ask the person to change their behavior and comply with the law. Because they are not law enforcement, they cannot arrest or physically remove someone from the situation. Fahy said that the DAA safety team is successful about 86 percent of the time when using this tactic.
“Our goal is not to penalize people violating the class C ordinances, but to help them understand the nature of the ordinance,” Fahy said.
If people continue not to comply with their requests, the safety ambassadors call APD. The responding officers are part of APD’s overtime patrols and intervene when the DAA safety team needs help. The DAA pays two APD officers overtime to focus solely on downtown, without worrying about being called away to other parts of the city.
APD Cmdr. Craig Smith said 23 percent of police positions in the area that DAA patrols are vacant.
This is part of a larger problem for APD. Smith said that since 2017, a shortage has been looming over APD staff. Now, they have 351 officer vacancies that have impacted the types of calls they can respond to, and class C misdemeanors fall to the bottom of the priority list.
“With the vacancy, we’ve had to adjust our call volume. … So if it’s not an actual crime in progress or violent crime, we are not really going to those as much,” Smith said. “So with DAA, they have built in to help with those class C’s – those quality-of-life issues.”
Smith said Austinites in a nonviolent situation can now call the DAA first to see if they have the means to help before dialing 911. Folks can dial 512-937-7422 to contact DAA.
APD does receive a monthly report from the safety team that includes the number of calls received and which ones they responded to.
The DAA safety team will enter its final roll-out phase in October and will have 23 safety ambassadors.
This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.
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Austin Police Department: the law enforcement entity for the City of Austin.
Downtown Austin Alliance: A nonprofit, membership-based organization focused, according to its website, on "preserving and enhancing the value and vitality of downtown Austin."
