Dozens of officers will be reassigned to street patrol under a reorganization plan announced Wednesday by Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis.
The shake-up comes as the department struggles with staffing shortages and the city faces a projected $33 million budget deficit.
Under the new plan, 72 officers from specialized units would be reassigned to help with patrol shifts. This would allow those officers to focus solely on patrol work instead of juggling it with other duties.
The Austin Police Department is about 230 patrol officers short, leaving many shifts unfilled, Davis said. In recent years, it has relied on overtime to fill the gaps, especially on patrol shifts.
Davis said she hopes reassigning these officers will improve response times and increase community safety.
“We have to look at what the priorities are here as a department,” she said. And those priorities include reducing violent crime and having more officers patrolling the city.
On Tuesday, Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax presented City Council a $6.3 billion budget that would eliminate the multimillion-dollar deficit the city was expected to face. He said one of the largest ways he chipped away at the deficit was reducing overtime spending on police and firefighters by about $17 million.
Under his plan, the city would save about $9 million by cutting back overtime for police officers. It was among the largest reductions the city manager made to help cut the deficit.
According to city data, the city paid out more than $41 million for overtime in the 2024 fiscal year. In 2023, it was nearly $50 million.
Davis said she does not expect overtime to stop.
“Oh, overtime will absolutely happen,” she said. “We are still over 200 officers short. Overtime is not going to cease because of these bodies being moved.”
Davis said the changes will still allow the department to investigate sexual assaults and violent crimes, and APD will still recruit and train officers. And as the department grows, officers can return to nonpatrol roles full time.
While this was a difficult decision, Davis said, it needed to happen.
“It was the right call for the right reasons,” she said.
The changes are set to begin in August.
