Step.- A contentious and short-lived partnership in which the Texas Department of Public Safety helped Austin Police patrol city streets is halted so state troopers can help border cities facing an expiring warrant federal government that quickly expelled immigrants entering the country.
The public health emergency order known as Title 42 ended Thursday night, but has yet to result in a “significant influx” of migrants, according to Biden administration officials.
Still, state troopers will be sent south, according to an Austin police statement released by the Austin American-Statesman.
“APD was informed Friday that due to the expiration of Title 42 and related issues at the border, Texas DPS is deploying heavily to border cities,” the Austin Police Department said in a statement.
At the request of Mayor Kirk Watson, Governor Greg Abbott directed DPS to the capital to help address Austin’s police personnel shortage and long response times to 911 calls in late March. Weeks after APD and DPS joined forces, statistics released by local officials revealed that nearly 90% of people arrested by state Police were Black or Latino.
Poorly received in Austin
Some Austin residents and leaders have criticized the DPS presence in the capital from the start, which was planned without input from the public or city council members.
When the Travis County District Attorney’s Office released statistics in late April that revealed stark racial disparities in misdemeanor charges issued by DPS, criticism of the association mounted. Nearly nine out of 10 of those arrested were black or Latino.
State and local officials said May 2 that DPS has been heavily patrolling predominantly Latino neighborhoods at the request of Austin Police, whose leaders said the areas were chosen because they have the highest crime rates and the most calls. emergency call 911.
A similar pattern emerged when Abbott sent DPS to Dallas after a series of homicides four years ago. Many Black and Latino residents felt harassed by State Police, and the three-month experiment ended shortly after State Police shot and killed a Black man holding a gun after the officer pulled him over for failing to use a stop sign. turn.
Neither DPS nor Abbott’s office immediately responded to a request for comment Saturday.
