And Austin City Council would rather talk about “affordable housing”

[Big Dipper]

Residents in Austin neighborhood concerned about crime as police department struggles with understaffing
https://www.foxnews.com/us/resident...ime-police-department-struggles-understaffing

 

[Mohawk600]

Phuck the Austin city council

 

[Sasquatch]

For what Austin is dealing with, they could bump wages up. Starting pay for an academy grad is just over $65k. $50k for new recruits. Takes 14 years to reach $99k under current rates and 16 years to reach $106k.

APD Recruiting - Pay-Benefits | AustinTexas.gov

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www.austintexas.gov

Irving PD, which is smaller and doesn't have quite the same bullshit to deal with, has a *starting* salary of $79,848 currently, reaching $101k in 4.5 years and $106k in 5.5 years.

https://www.cityofirving.org/1672/Salary

To someone looking at jumping into law enforcement, they would really have to love Austin itself and want to be part of that show to take that offer over something like Irving's.

Magnolia PD is also currently recruiting also in our lil' town. Starting pay is $62,000 (can't find their pay scale to see when / if they reach $100k as a regular patrol cop) and you get a take home car, and 100% paid health insurance. Small (but growing) town that doesn't have hardly any of the same crap a big city like Austin or Irving would deal with - legit most of the time we see our PD they're running traffic or handling a collision. Of course they get callouts but we dont' have crazies protesting downtown, riots, or daily shootings going on here.

You're going to work your ass off for that $65k that Austin offers in a more cop-hostile environment than either Irving or Magnolia or many towns in between. I can see why their recruitment numbers are down. Austin has a lot in common with Seattle or Portland (Oregon, not Texas!) - both of those cities also have an anti-police city council and vocal minority of the population, and they both suffer from similar major staffing shortages. They need a change in leadership in the city, along with more attractive pay. It goes without saying if starting pay goes up, everyone else's pay should bump up a lot too. We've got one or two Austin coppers on this forum who do good and who deserve paid better for their efforts.

 

[Enigma57]

If you're still in Austin this late, I don't know what to tell except. Get out or stop voting these imbeciles into public positions.......

 

[Mohawk600]

I live here because of family (elderly mother)............If not for that, I would have left long ago.

I also vote against the libs and every bond measure they put on the ballot, every single time..............it's like pissing upstream though