In 2020, during the George Floyd race riots, the liberal Austin City Council could not ignore the anti-police movement happening around the country. So it joined in, too, slashing $150 million from the police department, one-third of its budget, and eliminating 150 vacant slots.
How does that budget vote four years ago affect the city today? That was described in a Feb. 17 post on X by Michael Bullock, the police union president. Because of “staffing woes” in the police department, he wrote, an entire sector of East Austin did not have a patrol officer assigned two it for two hours.
Austin, the Texas capital, has a growing population that is approaching one million residents.
Randy Sutton, of The Wounded Blue, says the lack of police manpower on Austin’s streets did not happen by accident. He blames anti-police politicians who include city council members and a police-hating district attorney.
“No one wants to work for the Austin Police Department,” he says. “The cops left in mass exodus because of the way that they have been treated.”
In 2023, 40 officers filed for retirement after the city council voted 9-2 to scrap a four-year police union contract.
Meanwhile, the affluent and liberal city ranked No. 15 last year in homicides out of 45 U.S. cities, Fox 7, a Fox News affiliated, reported last year.
In an interview with Fox News, Bullock said the city is on the "brink of disaster" because of cop shortages.
"No matter what challenges we face," he said, "Austin’s finest continue to show up to work to stand in the gap between those who seek to do wrong and innocent Austinites."
