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Austin police chief abruptly quits amid staff and budget shortages as city spirals

August 22, 2023 | | Print Article

Austin Police Department’s Chief Joseph Chacon has suddenly announced that it is time for him to retire as the force is hit with staffing and budget shortages and crime skyrockets out of control in the city.

This move comes in the wake of the “Defund the Police” movement in the Texas enclave. Chacon said he had been considering stepping down for several weeks and finally made the announcement on Monday with a “heavy heart.” He feels it is “the right moment” to leave.

(Video Credit: Austin Police)

He told the rank and file that it was an “absolute honor” to have been chief of police and urged his officers to “hold your heads up” and “keep fighting the good fight.”

“Honor the profession by keeping the citizens of this city safe and thank you for making this department look so good through your tireless and selfless service, and for making this one of the safest big cities in the country,” he said in a statement.

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The police union is complaining of “miserable conditions” for officers in Austin. The organization asserts that the “Defund the Police” movement has decimated funding for the department and has gutted the workforce.

The Democrat-run Austin City Council previously approved a $150 million budget cut to the police force following the shooting of an unarmed black man in April 2020, just weeks before George Floyd’s death. That was a third of the police force’s budget. Since then, the city has been spiraling into chaos.

(Video Credit: Daily Mail)

According to the Daily Mail, the union contends that the “Defund the Police” movement has ripped the ranks apart. It has allegedly driven officers to quit and has made it ever more difficult to recruit new cops and staff.

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“The Austin Police Association would like to take a moment to thank Chief Joe Chacon for his years of service to the citizens of Austin and El Paso, as well as for the time he spent on the Board of Directors for the APA. We wish you the best of luck in retirement. We would also like to congratulate Chief Robin Henderson on her pending appointment as interim chief of police,” the union said in a statement.

“We look forward to continuing our collaborative work to get our police department where it needs to be,” the organization said.

According to the Daily Mail, the “Austin City Council approved a $443.1 million budget for APD for the fiscal year 2021-2022, raising it from $309.7 million in 2020 after it had been slashed.”

“The woke city leaders have proposed a budget of $476.5 million for 2023-2024 but, when adjusted for inflation, this is around $50m less than was allocated back in 2019-2020,” the media outlet continued.

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APA President Thomas Villareal told the Daily Mail in an interview that the union has been locked out of budget negotiations after more than two decades resulting in a pay deal voted down for the first time ever in 2017.

By that time, the “Defund the Police” movement began to emerge.

“Our officers worked without a contract for the first time in almost 20 years and this downward slide began in terms of both officer staffing as well as morale,” Villareal noted.

“Throughout 2018, the city engaged in a process to ‘reimagine police oversight.’ This reimagining process further damaged morale as officers felt like they had no say in how these oversight processes were going to play out. This collaboration with the activists was short-lived and the same people who supported the 2018 contract, later came out against us in 2020,” he recounted.

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In 2021, the state legislature passed a law that forced Austin to restore the funding it had cut, but it was too late. Police officers were leaving in droves, retiring or choosing to depart in huge numbers.

Meanwhile, the homeless problem in Austin is also out of control.

Austin firefighters attempted to quell a brush fire on Sunday night that broke out at a homeless encampment along the I-35 near Stassney.

Source: Austin Fire Department

Austin resident Jamie Hammonds, who has been documenting the city’s homelessness crisis, commented on the encampment to Fox News.

He criticized city leaders for allowing encampments “to grow for long that they are a danger to the general public,” in a statement.

“At this point, the ingredients are in place for a major fire that has the ability to destroy lives, homes, and businesses,” he remarked. “Sadly, it is too late for the city of Austin to change course. I only hope we can make it through the next several weeks without any loss of life or property.”

“The proliferation of encampments is one of many problems afflicting Austin, particularly since the city council voted unanimously to gut APD’s budget by about one-third, or $150 million, during the 2020 riots,” Fox News reported.

“The same city council voted to lift the ban on homeless camping all over the city in 2019. Voters later rebuked the city council and passed a referendum to reinstate the ban on homeless camping, but the camps have continued to proliferate,” the media outlet continued.

Then there are the drug addicts and crime that is skyrocketing all over Austin. It’s not a pretty picture.

By the time the city realizes the damage it has done with progressive policies, it will finish morphing into a third-world hell-hole. It’s well on its way there now.

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