Austin police officers use bicycles to block the entrance to the Austin Police Department headquarters during protests on May 30. [JAY JANNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN/FILE]▲
Austin City Council members on Thursday unanimously approved a $4.2 billion budget that includes about $150 million in planned cuts to Austin police, but only $20 million or so will be immediately removed from the department's funding.
The final approval of the budget comes after the council heard months of outcry from community members demanding funding police cuts in the wake of protests against police brutality.
That outcry continued Wednesday, when more than 200 people signed up to speak as the council convened, most of whom supported the cuts, or urged the council to cut deeper.
Before the City Council's revisions, the initial proposal for the police department's budget called for about $434 million in funding.
Of the $150 million the council has earmarked for reinvestment, about $21.5 come in the form of immediate reinvestments from cutting three upcoming cadet classes, slashing overtime costs by nearly $3 million, pulling more than $3 million from commodities and contractuals, $1 million from records management and More than $220,000 combined from license plate readers and vacancies to the department's mounted patrol.
That money will be redirected instead to a wide variety of community programs and city departments, including Austin-Travis County EMS for COVID-19 response, mental health response, violence prevention and a family violence shelter and protection and victim services.
Funds have also been shifted parks and trails, abortion access, food access, substance abuse care and others.
Aside from the $21.5 million in immediate reinvestments, the council also moved about $128.8 million into two transitional funds, one to remove primarily civilian functions from the department and another to divert dollars from police to alternative forms of public safety over the next year.
The Decouple Fund includes about $80 million, separating forensics, communications, support services, strategic support, community partnerships and victim services out from under Austin police.
The Reimagine Safety Fund contains $49 million from overtime, mounted patrol, canine, explorers, traffic enforcement, intelligence, training, recruiting, park police, lake patrol and nuisance abatement.
While those funds are slated for more long-term efforts, council members included direction for City Manager Spencer Cronk to return to council with a community engagement plan that would culminate in a budget amendment process by March. In the meantime, council members will continue to hold Public Safety Committee meetings to work out the specifics of how and when funding will be shifted.
The delay in the movement of those funds was a point of contention for some community members and reform advocates, who said that police still had access to that money.
Grassroots Leadership and Communities of Color United, which both called on the council to make $220 million in cuts to the department — about 50% of the police budget — said the budget as approved did not "meet the moment."
Both groups pushed the council to take the larger sum from police and put $91 million into the RISE Fund, the local COVID-19 relief fund for individuals, $4 million into the city's Equity Office, $10 million for Austin Public Health and $115 million for low-income housing.
While the groups said the $21.5 million in initials cuts include some worthy items, they said the remaining transition funds represent an accounting change that moves money to accounts outside of the department that the department may still access to perform the same functions.
"Reimagining public safety does not mean simply reorganizing departments or taking the same functions that APD currently performs and moving them, complete with their current staff and culture, to a civilian department. It does not mean delaying things we could defund now because our city council has yet to gather the political courage to lay off sworn officers," the groups said.
Chris Harris, a local criminal justice advocate and public safety commission member, said the initial immediate reinvestment is fairly modest in terms of the dollar amount, but represents a significant shift in city priorities toward responding to protests calling for racial justice.
"There's a lot of big numbers being floated around that are, at this point, not real," Harris said. "But the budget action does tee up the potential for a much more extensive reimagining of public safety, so I'm hopeful that the city and City Council will really allow that process to move forward."
Harris said Thursday's action should be a first in a longer process of funding social and health services that he said have historically been sidelined, in part, because of an overreliance on police.
"I want to ensure that this is just the start, again of a real reimagining of what public safety is, that understands that health and safety is about housing, it's about health care, its about transit. It's not just about police," he said.
Council Member Greg Casar said the council knows there is still much work to be done in the coming year to make good on the promise to move the nearly $129 million from transitional funds away from Austin police.
"There's so much more that we know our community is asking for if we want to truly reimagine public safety, and we know that we should be clear-eyed that there will be well-funded efforts to fearmonger about this vote and send us backwards, to talk about the false notion that this council isn't interested in safety, but that's exactly what this council unanimously has been working towards, justice and safety for everyone," Casar said.
With Thursday's vote, Austin has joined cities including Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis and others that have taken steps to rethink police and reduce department budgets.
The Associated Press this week reported that the Seattle City Council cut the salary of police Chief Carmen Best by $10,000, and voted to cut 100 officers from the department through layoffs of attrition. Best resigned from her post Monday, saying she was fine with a pay cut, but refused to fire young officers.
Unlike in Seattle, Austin leaders did not approve any layoffs for officers, only cuts to positions that were already vacant or scheduled to be added later.
In June, Portland city commissioners voted to cut $16 million from that city's $245 million police budget, despite calls for cuts of up to $50 million. Those cuts, which came from eliminating a gun reduction violence team, school resource officers and transit division, would be shifted to other social service priorities.
Corby Gastrow, president of the Greater Austin Crime Commission, which advocates for police and has urged the council not to cancel cadet classes, said the group supports funding for community health paramedics, family violence, mental health response and violence prevention. However, he said he is concerned about reductions in police positions.
"The Crime Commission is reassured that the community will have input in the process to evaluate police operations and reforms in the months ahead," he said. "The budget rider amendment that makes clear police cadet classes may continue next year is encouraging, and we look forward to the timely completion of the work to improve training."
This is a developing story. Check back for more information.