By Nicole Chavez
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Detectives from across the city are pulled every year from their regular duties to help with street closures and patrolling during South by Southwest — and the police union wants to change that.
At Monday’s meeting of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the police union proposed that council members use the department’s surplus money from the 2014-2015 fiscal year to pay off-duty officers to work during next year’s SXSW.
“It’s not a perennial solution,” said Andrew Romero, vice president of the Austin Police Association. “Unfortunately, it’s a problem that has to be fixed with money.”
During the nine days of SXSW, the police department assembles several units to meet the public safety needs of a massive event that draws thousands of people to downtown Austin.
Police officers worked a total of 24,000 hours in traffic and code enforcement, 911 responses and crowd control. This year, between 35 and 45 state troopers were sent to help but they only worked around 300 hours, said Austin Police’s Chief of Staff Brian Manley.
When Council Member Leslie Pool suggested bringing other law enforcement agencies to help during special events, the police department and the police union explained it would not be an easy process.
The presence of the Texas Department of Public Safety during SXSW came at no cost for the city after the agency “volunteered” some troopers, Manley said, adding that the city would have to look for additional funds to pay other agencies.
What’s more, the city is only allowed to pay officers with the Austin Police Department for public safety services, according to civil service law adopted by the city. Bringing officers from out of town would need a change in the police officers’ contract, a process that includes negotiations and the officers voting, which usually takes months.
Back in July, the police union had asked the city to look into the scheduling problems that come up during the festival, but council members were in the middle of budget negotiations and postponed the discussions until now, city officials said.
With SXSW just months away, Romero urged council members to use part of the estimated $2 million in the police department’s budget surplus from last year to pay off-duty officers to help with the festival’s public safety needs.
The committee asked police union representatives and the city to begin discussions about what changes could be made to the police department’s labor contract that will help bring more out-of-town resources during SXSW.
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