Police, fire and rescue services in Austin demand budget increases for unmet needs

Austin’s public safety agencies – police, fire and emergency medical services – will request increases in their budgets next year as well as additional funding to fill gaps in their departments.

Each department, along with their respective union presidents, presented their demands for next year to the city’s Public Safety Commission on Monday and explained how funding those demands will increase efficiency and public safety throughout the city.

Commissioners unanimously approved each department’s recommendations and asked Austin City Council members to provide more money to departments to help meet these priorities. Most of these unmet needs include hiring more staff to better respond to emergencies.

In about a month, the city will begin the budget process in which it will decide how much money the various departments will receive.

The city’s total budget last year was $5.5 billion. Public safety department budgets come from the city’s general fund, which also funds other city services such as parks. The largest sources of revenue for the city’s general fund are property taxes and sales taxes.

The city’s finance department in April projected a growing deficit in Austin’s general fund for the coming years, meaning expected revenues will be less than expenses.

How this will play out in next year’s budget remains to be seen. The City Manager’s office will release a draft budget later this summer that will provide a more detailed look at the funds available and the city’s plans to prioritize its resources.

Funding for all city departments must be approved for final approval by the City Council, which will vote on and amend the bill presented by the City Manager this summer.

What does Austin Police want?

The Austin Police Department expects its budget to increase by nearly $13 million next year, from the current $478 million to about $491 million.

The police department accounts for the largest share of the general fund, 35% last year.

If approved, it would be the fourth consecutive year the police department has received a budget increase since the city cut the agency’s budget by $150 million in 2020 amid nationwide calls for police reform. Under state law, a Texas city cannot cut a police department’s budget after approval.

Deputy Chief Constable James Mason told commissioners that the biggest reason for the increase was personnel costs, which included insurance and the police pension system.

Mason said the department plans to hire 16 911 call takers and 10 dispatchers for the 911 call center. A year ago, the call center had nearly 60 open positions, but now it’s down to 19, Mason said. The goal of the additional positions is to ensure staff can answer calls in 15 seconds or less.

In addition, the police department plans to add more positions in its public information requests office – six new employees to handle requests and four to handle requests for audio and video material. The department also hopes to hire six new employees to comply with a state law that requires all information to be released to people accused of a crime.

An audit last year found that the police department had a backlog of 20,000 requests for public information.

The department also wants to allocate additional funding for sex crimes investigations, marketing and website design to help recruit officers at a time of persistent vacancies, and offer leadership training based on recommendations from the Kroll consulting firm to improve training tactics at the police department’s cadet academy.

The department’s total unmet needs are $4.8 million.

What does EMS require?

Austin-Travis County Emergency Services expects its budget to increase by nearly $10 million to $140 million next year.

Carlos Ledesma, deputy director of EMS, said the unmet needs total $8.6 million and include providing additional paramedics and ambulances in various locations around the city, such as downtown and the Domain region.

Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS union, said there are no dedicated paramedics and ambulances for downtown. On weekends, when bars close, the EMS sends ambulances from surrounding neighborhoods.

Xie added that the shortage of paramedics and ambulances across the city is also affecting EMS communications, which often prioritizes calls and only sends an ambulance when absolutely necessary. However, there have been no additional positions in EMS communications in 20 years, even though call volume has increased by 25%, she said.

What is the Austin Fire Department demanding?

The Austin Fire Department expects to increase its budget by about $13.5 million next year (currently $247.8 million).

The department is applying for two new positions to regain national accreditation, which it lost 22 years ago. That would help the department more easily identify policies and procedures that need improvement, said Ronnelle Paulsen, deputy director of the fire department.

The department needs about $1.9 million to hire 16 people to operate the two new aerial work platforms that have already been purchased, Paulsen said.

Bob Nicks, president of the Austin Fire Association, said the department hasn’t received a new lift truck since 1995. In addition, he urged the city not to take anything else away from public safety departments, noting that the three departments accounted for 67% of the general fund in 2017 and are now at nearly 62%.

“Enough is enough,” said Nicks. “We can’t go on.”

Activists call for more spending on housing and mental health

In addition to public safety agencies, representatives from Equity Action and the Austin Justice Coalition spoke out about the need to increase spending on a variety of prevention measures, including more money for housing for the homeless and ex-inmates, and improving mental health services and violence intervention.

Chris Harris, policy director for the Austin Justice Coalition, said there are currently no 24-hour mental health emergency responders on call, although that option is available in Austin if someone calls 911.

Addressing marginalized groups in the community, Harris said, “actually does a much better job of addressing what we all think of as public safety or community safety than the approaches we’ve tended to rely on in the past.”

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