As South by Southwest and the whirlwind of events that surround it loom large on the horizon, the city and the Austin Police Association are discussing ways to cover the festival season without pulling many officers away from their duties. One potential fix involves hiring temporary law enforcement from jurisdictions such as Travis County, Round […]
Public Safety
Posted inPublic Safety, Travis County
Questions pile up as Travis County tackles flood relief
Travis County has more questions than answers more than two weeks after heavy floods caused widespread damage in Central Texas. At its regular Tuesday voting session, the Commissioners Court charged staff with investigating several issues raised by affected residents who attended the meeting. “We are very simple people,” William Torres, a resident of Thoroughbred Farms […]
Posted inPublic Health
Health committee discusses new spending plans
Before adopting the city’s proposed budget in September, City Council added more than $6.5 million in spending for health, human services, social services and quality of life programs. With the new fiscal year in full swing, Shannon Jones, director of the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, explained Monday how those funds will be […]
Posted inMusic & Entertainment, Police
Police association proposes SXSW funding fix
Although it is an economic driver for the city, South by Southwest imposes significant demands on the Austin Police Department, which pulls many of its personnel away from normal duties to cover the event every year. The Austin Police Association is now proposing a fix for next year’s festival, due to take place in mid-March, […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Sobriety center plans advance through the county
Travis County Commissioners have taken another big step toward the creation of a sobriety center that would serve as an alternative to jail for the region’s most temerarious tipplers. During their regular voting session on Tuesday, the commissioners directed the Facilities Management Division to estimate the cost of converting the existing Medical Examiner’s building at […]
Posted inAISD, Public Safety
AISD to begin video ticketing
During a quick approval of Monday’s consent agenda, the Austin Independent School District board of trustees unanimously OK’d the use of camera-based ticketing to help curb drivers’ illegal passing of stopped school buses. AISD entered into a one-year renewable contract with Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions Inc. for a School Bus Safety Stop-Arm Camera System. ATS […]
Posted inAustin, City Council, Police, Public Safety
Body camera policies to be scrutinized
After the City Council Public Safety Committee heard from five people well versed on issues surrounding police body cameras, committee Chair Don Zimmerman asked Kim Rossmo, chair of the citizens group charged with vetting public safety issues, to get more public input and help develop policies for using those cameras. Everyone on the panel seemed […]
Posted inEMS
City may shorten ambulance provider workweeks
Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services ambulance providers are under a lot of strain as they try to keep up with population growth and an increasing number of special events, but a new proposal could reduce some of that pressure. On Aug. 12, City Council discussed the possibility of amending the proposed Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Committee restarts discussion of fire and EMS merger
Members of the Public Safety Committee heard testimony Monday on the idea of merging the Austin Fire Department with Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services, but city staff and organization heads reiterated time and again that anything official is a long way off. Before a union of the two emergency bodies can even be considered, Austin/Travis County […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Record rate of traffic fatalities confounds APD
Traffic fatalities are so frequent in Austin that it’s difficult to keep up. That much was clear at the Public Safety Commission meeting Monday, when a person who had been struck and killed by a car just that morning did not make it into officers’ tally of the dead. As the Austin Police Department briefed […]
Posted inCity Hall, Fire
City, firefighters reach tentative agreement
After years of strife, the City of Austin and the Austin Firefighters Association successfully concluded the collective bargaining process Monday. Last November, City Council agreed to settle a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice over alleged discrimination in the Austin Fire Department’s hiring process. When Council voted to accept the consent decree, which allows […]
Posted inEMS, Public Safety
Momentum slows on Austin/Travis County EMS bill
A bill that supporters say would bring more transparency to the way Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services workers are decredentialed has slowed after some unanticipated momentum. Austin/Travis County Emergency Medical Services Association President Tony Marquardt has been trying to reform the rights granted to EMS workers who lose their credentials. Because Texas is a delegated […]