An Austin, Texas, police staffing crisis has reached a point that sergeants are now filling in as 911 call takers, ensuring emergencies can be tended to in a timely manner, according to reports.
ABC station KVUE in Austin reported that sergeants with the Austin Police Department are volunteering to take 911 calls, on top of their full-time jobs as leaders within the department, accumulating overtime hours.
An Austin Police Department officer on patrol. (Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) ((Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images))
Sergeant Lee Knouse told the TV station the department is experiencing a staffing emergency, or problem, now, and is having difficulty filling certain positions.
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The sergeant works as an evening patrol shift supervisor, though over the last six months he has been taking 911 calls during overtime hours.
Currently, the department has fewer sworn officers than it did 15 years ago, despite a boom in population in the Texas state capital over the past two decades.
Struggles to hire new talent and hold onto existing officers stretch back to August 2020, when Austin’s City Council voted to cut the police budget by almost a third to “re-imagine” public safety.
Police enforcement block the streets in order to prevent abortion rights demonstrators from nearing the police station in Austin, Texas, June 25, 2022. (Suzanne Coredeiro/AFP via Getty Images, File)
Even though the funding was restored in 2021 to comply with state law, multiple cadet classes had been canceled and several officers left in search of stable employment.
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The employment issues have only compounded, forcing the department to make desperate moves to fill critical voids.
“You’re in a crisis or having a problem. You pick up the phone, you call 911,” Knouse told KVUE. “Well, if there’s a bunch of calls holding because there’s no call takers, then obviously that’s a problem.”
He added that filling in as a 911 caller has given him a different point of view.
“It’s also been good for me to see kind of what they do and the challenges or just what a unique and challenging skill set it is to answer the phone, to listen to some of these problems,” he told KVUE.
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Officials with the Austin Police Department did not immediately respond to questions regarding the 911 call taker shortages and the decision to allow sergeants to fill the vacancies with overtime pay.
According to KVUE, Austin police budgeted just over $7.7 million for 2023 and has already spent $13 million during the first six months of the fiscal year. Sergeants working overtime as 911 call takers have caused that amount to go up even more.
The City of Austin’s job posting site shows the 911 call takers get a starting pay of $23.85 per hour if the person hired has no experience.
To qualify for the position, applicants must pass a state exam to get the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Telecommunicator Licensee within a year of employment.
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Allowing sergeants to fill in as 911 call takers is just another creative solution to filling a void caused by a measure to defund the department.
Last month, the Texas Department of Public Safety partnered with Austin PD to make up for the local agency’s staffing crisis and help with patrols.
Paul Best of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
