Saturday, July 26, 2008

Police union backs using citation authority at Austin PD

It pleased me to see the Austin Police Association came out in favor of using citations instead of arrests for low-level offenders in an article on the topic in this week's Austin Chronicle:
Given the stresses on the city's budget, "if we really want to be fiscally responsible, we have to have all these options on the table," said Austin Police Association Vice Presid­ent Wuthipong "Tank" Tantaksinanukij. "This is really talking about, in reality, expanding the resources available to officers. We're open to anything that will help us do the job better and free up the manpower of our officers."
APA's parent union, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, also backed the original legislation at the Legislature.

See more from the recently formed group Austin Public Safety Solutions, and also related recent Grits coverage:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen! What we are witnessing is a move to the rational allocation of resources. What a novel idea!

Anonymous said...

Grits how many Class C citation are there that turned into warrents for there arrest for non payment.I'll bet alot.It's all about the money.It's a no win for both.Further more the Police like the citation it's much easier to write one then it is to book one in jail.It's a win win for the Police glad to see it.