After years of city annexations, Travis County Emergency Services District 4 (ESD4) should no longer have its own fire department, ESD4 Fire Chief David Bailey told the City Council Public Safety Committee on Monday. When it was founded as Travis County Rural Fire Protection District #4 in 1985, the taxing district covered a large swath of […]
Public Safety
Posted inPolice
Committee wants more specifics from police on body cameras
Activists and members of the City Council Public Safety Committee made clear Monday that they want greater assurances from the Austin Police Department that the body cameras the department plans to implement will bring about transparency and accountability. In particular, the four committee members emphasized their hope that the department would develop a clear set […]
Posted inPolice
Council to take up APD gender identity proposal
The Public Safety Commission unanimously recommended a resolution Monday that it hopes will prompt the police department to reform its policies on how gender is reported in criminal complaints and other official reports. The resolution directs the city manager to develop a policy on how the Austin Police Department refers to transgender and gender nonconforming […]
Posted inFire
Austin Fire Department could soon be using drones
The drone idles on a small runway at the Austin Radio Control Association, just east of the city. It has a gray body and a white nose, across which someone has painted a sinister smile. The controls are tested, and then the small aircraft takes off. “They’re going through with their first search,” says Sterling […]
Posted inPolice
Commission debates racial disparities in policing
The Austin Police Department “deserves at least a B+,” according to Austin Police Monitor Margo Frasier. The good news is that not only did the total number of complaints about APD decline in 2014, but the most common complaint was for officer rudeness, Frasier told the Public Safety Commission on Monday. During her presentation, she […]
Posted inPolice
One way to protect pedestrians? APD says more ticketing power
More power over more highways. That’s part of what the Austin Police Department hopes to attain in its effort to reverse last year’s record number of fatal car accidents, which resulted in 102 deaths, and limit the number of pedestrian deaths, which totaled 30 last year. “There was a city ordinance … that had not […]
Posted inPolice
Officials reflect on safety at SXSW 2016
This year’s South by Southwest festival was one of the safest yet, say SXSW and public safety officials, thanks to overtime funding that allowed Austin Police Department officers to fill festival staffing spots internally. Overall, the number of festival-related arrests was lower than in recent years. “It went really, really well,” Brad Spies, SXSW’s special […]
Posted inPolice
500 body cameras soon to be within APD’s reach
The Austin Police Department is inching closer to acquiring at least 500 body-worn cameras, but some close to the process told the Public Safety Committee on Monday that more public input should be sought. This month, APD announced a “pilot confirmation process” with Taser International Inc., which bid on a job to procure the 500 cameras and provide […]
Posted inPolice
As APD tests out body cameras, state eyes in-house data storage
Local police agencies outfitting their officers with body cameras may have the option to store their data with the state. On Monday, Dale Richardson, chief operating officer of the Texas Department of Information Resources, told members of the House Select Committee on Emerging Issues in Texas Law Enforcement that his agency was working on opening […]
Posted inPublic Health
No big changes to mosquito protocol, says city
Despite two confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne virus Zika in Travis County, the city of Austin says it will not make any big changes to its mosquito-control strategy as the warm season begins – a time ripe for insect breeding. “We have not had any reason to believe that there’s any infected mosquitoes in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Public Safety Commission wished for input in TNC talks
Although the issue long ago passed them up, members of the Public Safety Commission on Monday discussed the implications of City Council’s controversial vote in December imposing new regulations on ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft – also known as transportation network companies, or TNCs. Members failed to come to a consensus on what […]
Posted inFire
Fire Department says it needs more fire stations
The Public Safety Commission unanimously recommended a resolution Monday that would require the city manager to submit an annual report to City Council identifying areas of the city most in need of fire stations. If approved by Council, staff will develop a comprehensive plan to be presented to Council in the next budget cycle for […]