DISTRICT 8 AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL MEMBER paige ellis VOTED to defund the police

October 13, 2022

Years after Austinites suffered through the defunding of local police by ⅓ and a surge in crime, one city council member remains mysteriously silent. Paige Ellis has taken almost no blame for her central role in both passing the deregulation of homeless encampments all over the city as well as defunding the police with colleague Greg Casar.

Paige Ellis, more than any other city councilor, is responsible for the reduction in Austin’s quality of life, increase in crime and homeless, increase in taxes, and shift of city government’s attention from the things people care about to the things a narrow radicalized group pushes for.

The impact of her policies was recently chronicled by the Wall Street Journal:

Cut police funding, and you get less policing. That’s what Austin residents are learning the hard way this month as law enforcement tries to triage its emergency response amid a severe staffing shortage.

Beginning this month, the Austin Police Department has asked the public not to call 911 for “non-emergency situations” if “there is no immediate threat to life or property,” “where crimes are no longer in progress,” and “when the suspect(s) are no longer on scene or in sight.” The directive applies to burglaries, thefts, prostitution, vandalism, and several other crimes. The police urged victims and witnesses to call 311 or file a report online instead.

The police department says this will reduce contact between police and the public amid a pandemic. But the new policy is also in large part “a result of recent staffing challenges that we have had, and as we are working through those, we are looking to see how we can deploy staff in the most appropriate manner” and respond “to those calls that need them the most,” said Chief of Police Joseph Chacon in a news conference in late September.

In fiscal 2020-2021, the Austin police budget was $292.9 million, down from $434.5 million the previous year. The City Council slashed $31.5 million directly from the police budget last year.

It also put $121.7 million in a reserve fund that was intended to “decouple or reimagine some public-safety functions” from the police department but which ended up funding police operations, says Alicia Dean, a spokesperson for the city. The City Council also canceled three cadet classes and cut 150 officers from the budget last year, says City Councilor Mackenzie Kelly, an outspoken supporter of the police.

Under new state legislation passed earlier this year, big cities can face financial penalties for reducing law-enforcement funding and in some cases must seek voter approval first. Under duress, the Austin City Council restored police funding for fiscal 2021-2022 and added an additional $8.6 million to the police budget. But it didn’t allocate money for new patrol officers, Ms. Kelly says.

The Austin Police Department had 1,798 sworn officers on Jan. 1, 2020. By last week it had 1,514 cops currently able to work, with 200 vacancies and an additional 96 officers on long-term medical or military leave, or restricted duty, Ms. Kelly says, citing numbers she received from the Austin Police Association.

City data shows Austin’s population grew by more than 38,000 between 2019 and 2021. Fewer police are now being asked to do more for a bigger population. Meanwhile, violence has risen. By Sept. 14 Austin had recorded 61 homicides this year, up from 44 in all of 2020 and 33 in 2019, according to city data.

It’s easy to defund and demoralize a police department but harder to rebuild one. The Austin Police Department has faced some public anger for announcing the emergency-response limitations, but it deserves credit for being honest with the public about the consequences of progressive policy. Those who don’t like it can respond next month when they vote on Proposition A, which would require two officers for every 1,000 Austin residents.

In November, Paige Ellis will face the voters of District 8. We must vote her out.