Last year after the death of George Floyd, cities like New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles all cut their police budgets in the range of 5-15 percent, and correspondingly violent crime rose, 911 call response rates increased, and attrition soared as morale plummeted. But there is no city where the consequences have been graver than in Austin, Texas, the 11th largest city in the country. The Austin City Council voted 11-0 in August of 2020 to cut and reallocate up to one-third of the $450 million Austin Police Department (APD) budget, cutting
