Monday, April 6, 2026, 2 p.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Public Safety Committee
0:02 Public safety committee meeting to order.
0:05 It is April 6th, 2026 at 2:02 pm uh, this meeting of the public safety committee.
0:12 We, it is at City Hall, located at 3 0 1 west second street, Austin, texas.
0:17 And we have a quorum present vice chair lane.
0:20 Councilman Siegel, councilman uchin.
0:22 And, uh, councilman ari will not be joining us today.
0:25 Uh, we will begin with public communication.
0:27 I will turn it over to joshua qui to call up our speakers.
0:32 Alright, sir, we have maria campos and jacob breach.
0:45 Just jacob breach.
0:56 Good afternoon, council members and Austin public safety staff.
0:59 My name is jacob reach and I'm the chief operations officer at communities and schools of central texas.
1:06 I have a strong history here in Austin, spending many years serving Austin students at the school, at
1:11 the school district, including even a time period where I had direct support with the Austin isd police
1:17 department. Uh, I was also the lead for the Austin isd school safety and security committee during that
1:23 time. And still today, I remain focused on keeping Austin students physically, mentally, and psychologically safe.
1:30 I'm a believer that one of the strongest things we can do for a safe community is to
1:35 have strong, meaningful relationships.
1:38 I am grateful to have such a strong partner in the city of Austin and our police, fire
1:42 service, emergency service, and emergency management teams.
1:46 Thanks to your partnerships, community and schools is able to provide mental health supports directly to austin's children
1:54 at a scale and efficiency that May not be possible through other avenues.
1:59 Our partnership also allows us to provide the male student achievement program at Austin, isd high schools, which
2:06 encourages male students to create a positive brotherhood, to empower them to support and build skills that they
2:11 need to author their own paths of success.
2:15 I'm also excited to talk about a groundbreaking study conducted by the opportunity insight.
2:20 In partnership with ed redesign labs at the harvard graduate school of education, they found that communities and
2:27 schools model empirically improve standardized test scores, raises graduation rates, and increases earnings in adulthood.
2:35 This research was recently featured in the atlantic, and more information can be found on cis central texas
2:41 and cis national websites.
2:43 If you're interested to learn more, probably the easiest thing to do is search just search communities and
2:48 schools. Harvard. It's the first thing that comes up the research titled when resources meet relationships, the return
2:55 to personalized support for low income students demonstrates that that ci s's relationship driven approach drives outcomes.
3:03 Uh, some of the highlights of that include improved test scores, higher graduation rates, and a and a
3:09 strong return on investment for local governmental agencies.
3:12 The study which focused on economic mobility also saw decreased rates of incarceration and higher rates of upward
3:20 mobility, which directly relate to this committee's focus.
3:23 So I want to thank this committee and the city for your continued partnership and our commitment to
3:28 build strong relationships with all of our students to support their social, mental and academic needs in Austin.
3:34 Thank you. Next we have, can I have point of personal privilege?
3:40 Thank you. Um, I just wanna thank you for coming to speak with this committee.
3:44 Um, I, I've had conversations with communities in schools both directly and through the work of the Austin
3:52 public health committee and a variety of others, but there were multiple programs that you just mentioned that
3:57 I was unaware of.
3:57 And I, I really look forward to continuing the conversation around how we can bring, uh, your supports
4:03 to my district. And in particular, I know that you are very effective at connecting students and families,
4:09 um, with programs that are largely unknown in the title one schools in my district.
4:15 And so the ability to bring that capacity building to us in the outlying areas of Austin, um,
4:22 I one look forward to it, and 2:00 am really grateful to know about these specific public safety related
4:27 programs. Thank you.
4:32 Next we have savannah lee, followed by peter hunt, and finally, a loki shaw.
4:52 Hey, y'all. Um, my name is savannah lee.
4:54 I'm with equity action.
4:55 I'm a resident of district one.
4:57 I'm here today about an item that's not on the agenda, but that we believe needs to move
5:00 forward quite quickly, and that is Council Member lane's proposal for a joint emergency communications department council directed
5:06 that this proposal be brought back for review by December 9th, and that deadline has come and gone.
5:11 We are asking you to ensure accountability by calling a special session of the public safety committee in
5:15 May to consider this resolution and get it moved forward.
5:17 This is not a bureaucratic issue, it's a life and death one.
5:20 We support creating a unified emergency communication structure because the way our dispatch system is currently set up
5:26 shapes outcomes before a responder ever arrives.
5:28 And right now, that response is often too slow or incorrect entirely.
5:32 When dispatch sits under law enforcement, the the default response is enforcement that affects how calls are taken,
5:37 how they're categorized, and who gets sent.
5:40 Too often, unless a caller explicitly says mental health, those calls are routed to police instead of the
5:45 appropriate care. In a moment of crisis, people shouldn't have to know the exact language to get the
5:50 help they need. This risk of inaccuracy is made worse when we consider how many community members we've
5:55 heard who are currently scared to call, call in an emergency because they're worried about apds work with
5:59 ice. The city's own audit found that a pd is frequently dispatched to non-criminal mental health calls, and
6:04 that people in crisis here face a higher risk of fatal encounters than incomparable cities.
6:09 These are not isolated incidents.
6:10 They're predictable outcomes of a system that treats health crises as public safety threats.
6:15 Other ci cities have shown a better way.
6:18 Civilian led crisis teams, when paired with strong dispatch systems resolve most calls without police involvement and with
6:23 better outcomes. But those programs only work when dispatch is designed to support them, not default away from
6:28 them. The funding for mental health response last budget cycle was an incredible win, and we're very grateful
6:33 for it. But our response is only as strong as the system that decides it.
6:37 A joint communications department would allow for consistent training, better call routing, and a system that sends the
6:42 right response the first time.
6:44 This accuracy will serve every department including a pd, and ensuring that we are getting it right and
6:48 not wasting resources by responding incorrectly.
6:50 If Austin is serious about preventing future tragedies and building a public safety system rooted in care, we
6:56 have to change the front door to that system, and that starts here.
6:59 Thank you.
7:05 Uh, hello. Um, my name is aoki sha and I'm the president of the united workers of integral
7:10 care. I'm here today in support of the speakers before me, and to urge this commission to take
7:15 up this item at a special meeting in May, and to move forward with the transition of 9 1 1
7:19 out of the Austin police department in time for the upcoming city of Austin budget cycle.
7:23 This timeline matters if we want to ensure this transition is done thoughtfully, smoothly, and with the resources
7:28 needed to build a system that actually works.
7:30 I wanna speak from the perspective of the mental health workers at integral care, those who are on
7:34 the ground responding to these calls every day.
7:36 Austin has made a promise to its residents that if you're experiencing a mental health crisis, you'll be
7:40 met with the right professional, a trained mental health responder equipped to deescalate and provide care.
7:45 But right now, that promise is not consistently being kept because of how our system is structured.
7:50 Dispatch often defaults to a police response, even in situations where a mental health professional or a medic
7:54 would be more appropriate.
7:56 This can happen even when a caller selects the mental health option.
7:59 And that matters because dispatch determines outcomes.
8:02 When someone in crisis is met with the wrong response, the situation can escalate.
8:05 It can lead to injury or even loss of life.
8:08 And beyond that, it can pull someone into the criminal legal system resulting in jail court involvement, fines,
8:13 and long-term barriers to housing and employment.
8:15 And when that same person is instead connected to integral care, the outcome looks very different.
8:20 They're met with skilled deescalation, they're supported in the moment, and they're connected to ongoing care, outpatient services,
8:27 housing support, and pathways to income instability.
8:29 That's how we break cycles of crisis.
8:32 This isn't just better for individuals, it's better for the city.
8:35 Connecting people to good care reduces repeat emergency calls and lowers long-term costs for the taxpayer.
8:40 Austin has already taken important steps to build an alternative response system, and now we have to address
8:46 what's standing in the way.
8:47 One of the biggest barriers is the very first point of contact 9 1 1.
8:51 Creating an independent emergency communications department will help ensure that calls are routed correctly and that the right
8:56 responders is sent the, sent the first time, and that both the community members and first responders are
9:01 safe. This is how we moved.
9:03 This is how we move toward a system that is not only more humane, but more effective and
9:07 more cost efficient. So again, I urge you move this forward call is special meeting in May and
9:12 ensure this is ready for the budget cycle.
9:13 Thank you. Hello, council members.
9:18 My name is peter hunt.
9:19 I'm a volunteer with Austin justice coalition and a resident of district 10.
9:23 Uh, I was also hoping to speak on the item that I expected to be on the agenda
9:27 today regarding the combined emergency response department.
9:30 Um, I obviously wanna echo all the good points made by those who come before me about the
9:34 reasons for doing this, uh, but I wanna speak specifically about the timeliness of this issue, especially in
9:39 the context of the forthcoming city budget later this year.
9:42 Um, that city budget takes up a lot of attention, a lot of, uh, stress for council.
9:48 Uh, and it's something that once it really starts to get rolling, I think it's going to distract
9:52 from a lot of the things that are, uh, could happen in particular, um, this effort to make
9:56 a combined emergency response.
9:58 The next meeting of this committee would be on June 1st, and we are looking at a proposed budget
10:02 coming out in July once that proposed budget, uh, arrives.
10:05 I know councils can be very busy with work sessions and time dedicated almost exclusively to it, certainly
10:10 based on the experiences we had last year.
10:13 This means that if this committee and if council, uh, altogether aren't prompt in addressing this issue, then
10:19 this isn't just gonna get put off for a couple months perhaps, but well into next year.
10:23 Um, that's a really substantial delay for what would be a very advantageous measure.
10:27 One that's good for the city, good for its residents, um, and, uh, it also would lead further
10:32 to a great deal more uncertainty in not only this year's budget, but next year's budget as well.
10:38 Uh, I think it's very valuable that this is on track and we understand sort of what the
10:42 budget ramifications are of a combined emergency response department before we start worrying about, okay, what is the
10:50 2027 budget going to look like?
10:53 Uh, one thing that I really don't wanna be doing is sitting in a budget work session in
10:57 the middle of August fretting about whether it's going to be even legally possible, uh, to make these
11:02 sort of changes given where money needs to be moved from, uh, an a pd, uh, and then
11:07 wondering, okay, well, what carve outs, what considerations do we have to make?
11:10 What do we need to be asking council about in these work sessions in July and August?
11:14 Um, then thinking about next year already.
11:16 So for that reason, I really would encourage you all to have a special call session to advance