Please don't help Fox News and Musk spread authoritarian propaganda. Austin wasn't even in the top 30 for US cities with spikes in homicide rates[1], even though they had one of the biggest budget reductions in the country.<p>This is how Austin actually cut its police budget, by the way:<p>> <i>In reality, Austin council members slashed or reallocated $150 million from the Police Department by separating programs, such as the forensics lab and 911 dispatch, to create independence. But those programs did not have their budgets cut.</i><p>> <i>What turned out to be the most consequential impact came from $21 million in cuts, canceling three cadet classes.</i><p>> <i>Council members said they suspended the program because the department had not done enough to alter its curriculum to shift to “adult learning” from a military boot camp model that critics said instilled aggressive behavior. City Manager Spencer Cronk said the pandemic hindered that effort.</i>[2]<p>So the only budget that was cut was for a training program that militarized police, and it wasn't a cut -- it was a suspension until the program was reworked.<p>Austin did not reduce the number of cadets[3] either. They just eliminated those three particular classes.<p>They also didn't reduce the number of employed officers. They just stopped trying to hire for some of the open positions:<p>> <i>Tight labor market conditions, coupled with repeated delays of cadet classes, led to as many as 180 vacancies at the Austin Police Department (APD), according to a KVUE report of February 21, 2020.</i><p>> <i>Now, the department won’t get to fill most of those vacancies. The city council voted August 13 to eliminate 150 vacant sworn officer positions. They also decided not to add 30 new officer positions that had been scheduled as part of a long-term staffing plan.</i><p>To recap: Austin did not reduce the number of officers, the scope of emergency services, or any aspect of their law enforcement budget except for (A) the number of open positions and (B) three classes for cadets that were found to militarize officers and make them more dangerous.<p>Unfortunately, we'll never know how many people this saved from dying in the custody of police because most of those organizations violate laws that require them to properly investigate those deaths[4].<p>1. <a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-homicide-rate/94070" rel="nofollow">https://wallethub.com/edu/cities-homicide-rate/94070</a><p>2. <a href="https://www.statesman.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/09/01/austin-police-department-budget-cuts-stirs-debate-over-police-reform/5536198001/" rel="nofollow">https://www.statesman.com/in-depth/news/politics/2021/09/01/...</a><p>3. <a href="https://theaustinbulldog.org/did-austin-defund-the-police-here-are-the-numbers/" rel="nofollow">https://theaustinbulldog.org/did-austin-defund-the-police-he...</a><p>4. <a href="https://www.kxan.com/investigations/bill-to-reform-reporting-of-deaths-in-custody-faces-law-enforcement-opposition/" rel="nofollow">https://www.kxan.com/investigations/bill-to-reform-reporting...</a>