How Austin police vacancies may have affected traffic fatalities
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Increases in Austin traffic deaths over the past few years have accompanied cuts in police staffing, a recent city audit report has found.
Why it matters: The conclusions reveal the ripple effects of the shifts in the city's police staffing and public safety spending, which have divided Austinites in the post-George Floyd era, though staffing shortages were already on the rise before the protests, according to the data.
What they found: The number of traffic citations issued by APD has dropped almost 65% since the end of 2019 — from 26,426 to 8,324 — even as traffic deaths on state-owned Austin roads climbed, per the report, titled "Effects of Traffic Patrol on Road Safety."
Between the lines: The Austin Police Department has endured increasing staff vacancies over the last few years, particularly for patrol officers who respond to calls for service.
- APD pulled officers from other areas to backfill patrol duties, including from the department's Highway Enforcement Command, per the report.
By the numbers: Patrol vacancy rates jumped from 11.1% in 2018-19 to 31.2% in August of this year.
- Meanwhile the traffic safety officer roster has shrunk dramatically, from 94 in 2019 to just 10 this year.
What they're saying: "Pulling people off state highways, it went from well patrolled to the wild West," Bill Spelman, an expert on policing and statistics who reviewed the audit report at Axios' request, said.
- Or, as the audit put it: "Most of these officers have been reassigned to patrol which has hampered APD's capacity to conduct proactive traffic enforcement."
Zoom in: In Austin, the number of fatal injuries from crashes rose steadily from 2018 to 2022, from 72 to 117 on all roads.
- An increasing majority of these deaths occurred on high-speed roads owned by the state of Texas.
- Some of those highways, like I-35, Mopac, U.S. 183 and U.S. 290, tend to be the bread-and-butter for traffic enforcement operations.
State of play: The Austin City Council recently approved record-high police funding, partly to address long-term staff shortages.
- The decision is part of the long turnaround from 2020, when the City Council, buffeted by social justice protests, opted to cut $31.5 million from APD's budget.
Zoom out: "As we increase staffing at the Austin Police Department, we should take a close look at these types of roads and see where targeted patrols would be most effective," José "Chito" Vela III, who was among the city council members who requested the auditor study the issue, tells Axios.
During a six-week Department of Public Safety deployment to help Austin this year, crashes were less frequent and outcomes were less severe, per the audit.
- "The limited DPS deployment bolstered policing capacity in Austin and heightened police visibility, which may have contributed to these outcomes," the report finds.
Yes, but: The divisive partnership with the state also led to widespread arrests of Black and Hispanic people and became politically untenable.
- "It's the vehicular equivalent of stop-and-frisk," Vela, who represents north-central Austin, said in May, roughly a month after the partnership launched.
- It was ultimately suspended by Mayor Kirk Watson.
Of note: The audit report was prepared in response to a request from Austin council members Vela, Vanessa Fuentes and Jose Velásquez regarding traffic enforcement effectiveness.
- Traffic patrols that "used moving violations as a pretense for investigative stops" are "ineffective at reducing fatalities," Vela tells Axios. "We should avoid this type of policing, as it doesn't reduce traffic fatalities and has civil rights implications."
The bottom line: "If you're serious about reducing fatal crashes you need to put police officers on the highways," Spelman, a former Austin City Council member, tells Axios.
- "But," he said, "you have to pull people over on an even-handed basis."