Austin first responders provide insight, safety tips at community meeting
AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Police Department and Austin-Travis County EMS met with community members to provide insight on the departments' policing, staffing levels, and to provide safety tips.
"We do a community connect event every quarter, so we get to come together with all of our community members and invite them out. We just get to hear from the community and ask them ‘hey, what questions do you guys have?'"says Austin Police Department Lt. Christopher Casto.
A full PowerPoint presentation at the Austin Recreation Center, allowed dozens of residents an opportunity to review policing, safety, tips and resources available in Central West Austin and around The University of Texas.
"Today, we are actually talking about heat safety and water safety and some of the specifics that we have done lately around the 360-boat ramp area," says Lt. Christopher Casto.
According to the police department, the decision was made to have additional parking enforcement near the 360-boat ramp due to congestion. Austin Travis County EMS displayed the steps to take when overheating. The Lake Patrol Unit went over the guidelines for being on the water.
Residents chimed in on recent issues they were facing in their communities.
"Folks were complaining about the speeding and the reckless driving on motorcycles up and down 2222. We put out a speed trailer that actually collected data so that we can find out where and how bad the problem actually is," says Lt. Christopher Casto.
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Those in attendance also addressed the increase in property crime. Records from APD show an 11% hike in property crime for the month of June, compared to the same time last year.
"We don't see everything, we can't see everything. We have lower staffing numbers right now, and we cannot see all the different crimes that are happening," says Lt. Christopher Casto.
APD says there are nearly 500 vacancies in the police department. The quarterly meeting allows the department to learn more about the community’s needs.
"I can actually get some of our folks on board to go and investigate some of those things in those areas, to kind of help quell some of those community concerns," says Lt. Christopher Casto
As a result of the shortage, the department says to only contact 911 for crimes in action and 3-1-1 if the crime is not in action.