Interim Austin City manager Jesús Garza and Mayor Kirk Watson have announced that the City has ended its partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). The partnership was temporarily halted in May due to several DPS officers being reassigned to patrol the southern border.
“Recent events demonstrate we need to suspend the partnership with DPS,” Garza said in a July 12 press release from the City. “The safety of our community is a primary function of city government, and we must keep trying to get it right. This partnership was an innovative approach to address acute staffing shortages that were years in the making. However, any approach must be in sync with Austin values."
While Garza did not specify in the release what recent events had prompted the end of the partnership, he noted that input from the mayor and the city council was weighed.
The news of the partnership was initially announced on March 27 with an agreement between Watson, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick to support the understaffed Austin Police Department (APD), the release said. The DPS support originally resulted in a decrease in gun and violent crime; less traffic fatalities; shorter response times to calls for help; and seizures of notable amounts of illegal drugs, including heroin and fentanyl.
But with the end of the Trump-era Title 42 immigration restrictions in May, the partnership was paused, a recent Austin Journal report said. The partnership was rekindled in June, with Watson vowing that APD and DPS would avoid “making some people feel like their communities are being over-policed.” Critics of the plan noted that East Austin’s homeless population suffered more trauma due to the greater police presence.
City Councilwoman Vanessa Fuentes stated that APD would oversee the initiative, with a significant change in the partnership being DPS’ scope shifting from areas with the most 911 calls to locales that experience high traffic injuries and fatalities; the Journal said, citing a KEYE report.
Despite the City’s decision to suspend the partnership, DPS plans to keep patrolling the Austin area, a July 12 FOX 7 Austin report said. Additionally, just days before Garza’s announcement ending the deal, the Austin Public Safety Commission had unanimously voted to approve a recommendation calling for more accountability from the partnership.
Watson’s office said the mayor does not think the partnership will be renewed in the future, according to FOX 7.