The Austin Police Department wants an astonishing 19.5% budget increase in the coming year to hire more officers, reported the Austin Statesman (Aug. 13), even though, as Council Member Bill Spelman questioned "why the city needs more police officer if crime rates, traffic fatalities and calls for service are down compared with last year," which for the record is a very good question. Chief Art Acevedo said the new officers would go to combat property crime. Because, I guess, that's a new thing.
Grits agrees the department has long needed to improve its focus on property crime, But there are smarter, more creative ways to do that than a 20 percent department-wide budget hike. Why not turn away from failed methods of combating property crime while freeing up officers for more productive crime fighting tasks? Where are the fiscal conservatives when you need them?
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3 comments:
The people of Austin should be scared. When the cops realize they are not getting a budget increase (pay raise, more special forces toys, etc.) due to a lack of crime, a lot more people are about to start going to jail. I see a crime wave approaching Austin.
Maybe they need to protect Abbott's personal water well as he drills it every deeper, you know?
If the PD would spend more time investigating violent and real property crimes, and less time dealing with minor drug offenses, etc., they wouldn't need more money for SWAT gear and other fancy toys.
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