The Austin Firefighters Association is seeking more attention to the safety issues facing its membership, which were discussed in part last week during City Council budget sessions. The AFA had planned to hold a press conference Monday to publicize issues such as increasing injury rates and mental health concerns highlighted by a recent death by […]
Public Safety
Posted inPolice
Downtown Austin safety team increases patrol in response to APD staffing shortage
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 […]
Posted inFire
City honors AFD’s work training firefighters for wildland-urban fires
Throughout her time on the dais, District 10 City Council Member Alison Alter has stressed the need for the city to understand and prepare to fight wildfires in the wildland-urban interface, or WUI, which is the area between unoccupied land and human-made structures. On Thursday, she sponsored a proclamation praising the Fire Department for making […]
Posted inPolice
The two finalists in Austin’s police chief search are from Cincinnati and Milwaukee
Lisa Davis, an assistant police chief for the Cincinnati Police Department, and Jeffrey B. Norman, police chief at the Milwaukee Police Department, are the two finalists in Austin’s search for its next police chief. Tuesday’s announcement comes after weeks of sifting through applications since the city launched a national search for the role in May. Thirty-two […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Justice advocates rebuke county plan for $300 million juvenile jail expansion
At its June 27 meeting, the Travis County Commissioners Court considered spending $250 million to $300 million to expand the county’s juvenile detention complex in South Austin. A united front of more than 50 justice advocates voiced unanimous opposition to the plan, saying that the expansion would represent a doubling down on carceral tactics rather […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Gun violence report will help city leaders craft intervention and prevention strategies
For a city of its size, Austin has a low rate of homicides from gun violence, averaging four per 100,000 residents over a 15-year period. But an “alarming” spike in shooting incidents following the Covid-19 pandemic – from January 2021 to December 2022 – caused the city’s homicide rate to surge to 8.3 and 7.1, […]
Posted inPublic Health
‘Demand has just gone up and up’: Food banks struggle to keep up post-pandemic
Drivers line up down the street to grab groceries from a small, white house in the Dunbar neighborhood of San Marcos. For some time, the renovated house worked fine for the Hays County Food Bank, but as more and more people rely on it, the food bank has outgrown the space. Executive Director Lisa Young […]
Posted inPublic Health
Central Health talks new facilities, services in advance of 2025 budget
Travis County’s public hospital district that funds medical care for low-income residents plans to accelerate its introduction of new clinical services in its next budget year. Care for psychiatry, endocrinology and rheumatology are among the new offerings on tap in part because of budget reserves that are higher than anticipated. At a community forum on […]
Posted inPolice
Electric vehicles for APD will arrive by the end of the year
City fleet officials updated the Public Safety Commission on Monday about their plan to add a fleet of electric vehicles for the Austin Police Department as part of an effort to meet the city’s net-zero emission target by 2040. The city is adding two electric Chevrolet Blazers specifically designed for police departments as part of […]
Posted inPolice
Travis County grand jury decides against charging Christopher Taylor with murder again
Austin police officer Christopher Taylor will no longer face prosecution for the fatal shooting of Mike Ramos in 2020. The shooting was a month before the murder of George Floyd, and Ramos’ name was invoked in racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. Taylor was indicted by Travis County District Attorney José Garza in […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Stakeholders urge county to hurry up on implementing legal defense at bail hearings
At Tuesday’s meeting of the Travis County Commissioners Court, a coalition of people impacted by the justice system, community organizers and county staff gathered to urge commissioners to develop a permanent program allowing people who have just been arrested to have lawyers at their bail hearings before they’re booked in the county jail – also […]
Posted inEnvironment
New climate report shows last summer’s record-high temps might not be a fluke
The results are in from researchers at the University of Texas’ Climate CoLab, and those who hoped last summer’s record-breaking temperatures to be a deviation from the norm might want to adjust their expectations. The new Climate Projections report, which hit city desks last week, runs climate models with both static and increasing emissions scenarios […]