Police in Austin Will Stop Responding to Non-Emergencies Like Theft and Burglary
By Rick Moran
If you live in Austin, Texas, and your house is broken into while you’re gone or someone smashes your car window to take your sound system, don’t bother calling the cops because they won’t show.
As of Friday, police will stop responding to non-emergencies. It’s “reimagining public safety,” according to the interim police chief, Joseph Chacon. The policy change was forced on police because of staffing shortages and recommendations from a task force set up to “reform” the police.
“Please understand, if somebody is in danger, we’re still going to send a marked unit and a uniformed officer to go handle it,” interim police chief Joseph Chacon explained Wednesday, according to KXAN-TV. “But for crimes that may have already happened and are now being reported, we are looking at alternative measures, and that’s what we’re working on now.”
People should call 311 “to report crimes that are no longer in progress, when the suspect or people involved are no longer on the scene and when there is no further immediate threat to life or property.”
In addition to theft and burglary, other “non-emergencies” include:
- Animal services
- Attempted theft of property
- Crashes between vehicles that don’t require a tow, there are no injuries, both drivers have proof of insurance and a driver’s license and neither driver is impaired
- Verbal disturbances
- Prostitution
- Suspicious person or vehicle