Austin Police shows decreases in response time, emergency service calls
Austin TX July 8th, 2023 The partnership between Austin Police and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is back in action.
In a memo sent to city leadership on June 30th, APD showed more numbers that indicate patrol response times, emergency calls for service, and fatal collisions were all decreasing. The reports also stated that the number of violent crimes decreased citywide during the DPS deployment.
“I think that better response times and fewer traffic accidents is a good thing. However, that’s not the same thing as making a claim that you have significantly reduced violent crime,” said Michael Sierra-Arévalo, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas.
The report is broken down by geographic, or city council district. In the reports, it says District 3 previously had the highest number of emergency calls for service. Response times for the district are also compared. From March 2022 to 2023, the response time is listed at 8 minutes 17 seconds. From April 2nd to May 13th of 2023, it decreased to 7 minutes and 8 seconds.
Raw data has not been released, but the department has provided summary statistics. The reports state that the number of violent crimes decreased citywide, but do not provide data beyond offender and victim race.
Sierra-Arévalo says different data and mechanisms are needed to examine whether violent crime has been reduced, which we haven’t seen.
“As a researcher that wants to see the data, I want to see your code. I want to see all those things before I believe that this two-week thing that you did, and had apparently an immediate effect, and then immediately vanished. All of that raises red flags,” said Sierra-Arévalo.
Mayor Kirk Watson previously shared his support for the partnership and said that they have recalibrated the partnership after concerns were raised by community members.
“The goal being to make Austin safer but also recognize we don’t want to do something that has the undesirable effect of making some people feel like their communities are being over-policed,” Mayor Watson told CBS in June.
The June memo sent to Watson and the council says that to further foster trust, APD is committed to providing data in a transparent manner. Sierra-Arévalo says the city and department missed an opportunity to build that trust originally when there was a delay to get any statistics at all.
“I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the public to simply believe the police department, which is what’s currently being asked of the public to just take whatever the APD says is happening and take them at their word.”
