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In his latest move in a political fight against Austin over police funding, Gov. Greg Abbott says he’s considering a proposal to put the state in charge of monitoring a large area in the middle of town, including downtown, the Texas Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin.
Abbott pitched the idea during a tele-town hall campaign on Wednesday while discussing his willingness to punish cities for “reporting the police” in the next legislative session, which begins in January. He denounced for months the August vote by Austin city council to cut its police department’s budget by a third, mainly by shifting some responsibilities out of law enforcement oversight. He has also already proposed measures such as the freezing of property tax revenues for cities that are cutting police budgets.
“Something else I’m thinking about doing, and that’s because we have people coming from all over the world and all over the country in our capital, as well as at the university, we can’t do our fellow Texans the victims. crime… because of the leadership of the city of Austin, “Abbott said,” and so what I think we need to do is have an area of the Capitol area that the state will be in charge of for policing , and we can use the city police of Austin for that. “
The proposal follows a fight for police that became a centerpiece of the November elections across the country, playing out fears of increased crime in major cities amid calls for racial justice and reforms of police behavior.
Violent crime and property crime in Austin both declined slightly through October of this year compared to last year, according to city statistics. Homicide cases, however, reached the highest number in more than two decades: 44 in a city of around 1 million people. But the rise began before the city council vote in August, and it reflects a national and national trend for major cities.
Police officials argued that the increase in homicides was unrelated to the funding decision and could be a statistical anomaly. Austin’s homicide rate is still low among major cities in Texas and the country.
“I don’t think we can say the 2020 numbers reflect this problem,” Austin Police Lt. Jeff Greenwalt told reporters last month. “The murders we are investigating tend to stem from the common theme of one putting themselves in a situation where they were not as safe as they could be.”
The council’s vote came after the department faced months of criticism over its own murderous use of force, and it coincided with national outcry over the death of George Floyd, the black man from Minneapolis who is died after a white policeman knelt on his neck during an arrest. And Austin officers seriously injured several non-violent protesters during protests after Floyd’s death.
Abbott has argued that cutting police budgets when homicides increase is “absurd.” He vowed on the call that he and lawmakers “will pass laws that will defund the cities that defeat the police but also make it financially … impossible” to do so in the first place, “and we will force the city of Austin to reverse its strategy. “
Abbott said the area could range from Lady Bird Lake, which borders downtown to the south, to 32nd Street and from Interstate 35 to Lamar Boulevard or Texas State Highway Loop 1, known as MoPac. The area would include the entire downtown area, where crime has declined significantly this year as fewer workers fill offices there due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the area surrounding the governor’s mansion.
“We can make sure that this area is safer for anyone who walks downtown, walks the Capitol, walks the university,” Abbott said.
Abbott had previously suggested that the state could take control of parts of the Austin police force, but hadn’t elaborated as much.
Jolie McCullough contributed reporting.
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