Austin sees hundreds of sex offender cases removed from police officer supervision due to defunding
Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are no longer being monitored by sworn police officers in Austin, Texas due to the city’s move to defund the police and cut police academy classes.
As of 2019, there were about 1,600 registered sex offenders in Austin according to the state’s sex offender database. There is no law preventing any of them from living near schools or other places where children tend to congregate, according to a local news report. About 650 of those cases were handled by officers who checked in on the registered sex offenders weekly to ensure they were where they reported themselves to be. But three of those officers were sent back to patrol as a result of the decision to defund the police, including slashing three cadet classes at the police academy, in August 2020. Defunding the police forced the department to cut the Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (SOAR).
NOT removed from supervision. Removed from POLICE supervision. This is a civil regulatory scheme.
Anyone notice that reported sex crimes DID NOT increase during this period?
We know this because, had it been otherwise, Fox and it’s law-enforcement sources would have made sure you knew.
I could tell by the article that it was more of an “oh my Gawd, they’re letting THESE people run around” and less of a “see what these officers should’ve been doing all along instead of wasting resources on monitoring” piece.
I’m not in favor of more crime…but if cutting funding is the only way to stop these public doxing registries, then so be it. While there, SMART can focus on a more realistic goal, like whether fairy dust and unicorn farts are a viable source of energy instead of the nonsense they “study” now.
Shucks. Darn.
So…do these individuals no longer have any state mandated reporting at all? Just free to go? If that’s the case, lets bring some if that to Florida.
Ben
I would hate to be there when they find out it was all a trap and they round everyone up and find them all out of compliance. OR circumstances change and they hire new staff. “hum seems you didn’t register for the past 9 months”.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🤣🤣🤣
Oh wait… what happened to the false (but eternal) argument about how necessary and important the Registry is for public safety??
Doubtless, this is Austin PD’s effort to scare the public back into re-funding the PD:
“Sex offenders everywhere!! … And no one is watching them!!” 😱
David
Let us Pray to God that while they all are not being monitored, someone doesn’t do something stupid and mess it up for everyone.
They obviously had way more money than they needed anyway if they were checking on registrants who were not on any kind of supervision WEEKY. Even when on probation, I was checked on once a month. Glad they were defunded and can be used on patrol where they can be useful instead of wasting tax payer money.
Jed
The officer who checks on me use to come 4 times a year. Since the panda-demic, at one point it was 14 months between checks as long as I had registered when I was supposed to.
As former law enforcement, I never wanted departments to be defunded. Having said that, if that is what it takes for us to be left the Hell alone, like they did in this article, BRING it on. Most of us are not on probation any longer so we are being treated like we are 5 years old having to have cops sent to our door to prove where we live.
I’ve not been an advocate of defunding police. However, police reform is a different subject entirely. If anything, this report argues for a more targeted approach focusing on the most dangerous former felons rather than wasting resources tailing the other 95%. Doing that might very well have prevented the rape mentioned in the article. I don’t understand why legislators and law enforcement are so resistant to fact-based rational analyses.
Veritas.
When I lived in Florida the local pd would check on me every month and one time I wasn’t home, which I got a call from an unlisted number. On one hand they say it’s not punishment, but if you aren’t home 24/7/365 you’ll get a lecture. I’m 41 years old, not 41 months. Unlike the government I can take care of myself.
Brandon
When I was on probation, it was living Hell. The probation officer would come by randomly 2 to 3 times a week. If I wasn’t home she would ask where I was and if I said “Grocery store” I damn well better have a receipt showing just that with a time stamp.
Then the sheriff’s office would come by, the local police department would come by, and even once, the FDLE came by. All of them wanted to come inside and I told all of them “As former law enforcement and a graduate from the Criminal Justice institute, I decline unless you have a search warrant. Their answers was always “If you have nothing to hide what’s the issue”? I replied “Let me come over to your house and dig through your personal items, your underwear drawer etc and see how violated you would feel”.
CherokeeJack
Was that like the entire time you were on probation. I could see maybe the first or second week. They just wanted to verify if you weren’t lying about the color of your shirts, shorts, shocks, underwear, and towels.
Brandon
The ENTIRE time. All that fuss is actually one of many things that got me off probation 40% way through it. It was not the probation officer I had an issue with, she was stern but fair. It was the cops that were bored and “Just happen” to always be on my street? Was a dead end street in the middle of a neighborhood. Zero crime ever on that street when I lived there for 4 years. Pure 100%, genuine harassment.
Good. Cops don’t need to be out harassing registrants every week with their BS compliance checks.
“Hundreds” is a good start but let’s all vote and continue defunding. Any government that runs Registries is a criminal regime. They and their LE criminals need to be defunded as much as possible. They will always have too much money and resources. But let’s shrink them as much as can be done.
As long as LE is doing ANYTHING with PFRs, they have far too much money and resources.
These people will fear monger as much as they possibly can to try to protect their $$$$$ and stay huge and bloated.
Will Allen
Here is my thought. What kind of person signs on to be a cop to do sex offender compliances? I mean when I got hired, I wanted to help people and make the community a safer sure. But even when I came in contact with a bad guy, unlike a lot of cops who call people scum bags, I always used sir or Ma’am (Sometimes you could not tell either way depending on the part of town you patrolled LOL)
My point is, that is NOT fighting crime, that is being a baby sitter. I also never had the desire to become a probation officer. As a cop, I felt the citizens who paid my salary were my bosses and always tried my best to learn something new and get to know the people on the streets I was going to spend my career around.
When I got promoted to detective, I really lost interest in police work. It was quite boring after that.
Reading the comments under the source article is just downright scary. There are calls for vigilante murder, castration, and a couple of other abominations. Granted the source material is FOX, so I wasn’t expecting a fair and balanced article. As Strother Martin said, “some men you just can’t reach.”
BWJ
So we did something to get us arrested that had nothing at all to do with those judgmental folks. But they, if they had the chance, would kill us and hope to be called heroes. So whatever we did (That wasn’t murder) is worse than killing someone?
That brings to mind this scripture from the Bible:
Matthew 7:1-5
“Judge not, lest you be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye”; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
BWJ…
Just More ‘Printed Toilet Paper’ in the Sourced Article Above!
Empirical Data is Missing in This Piece of A Grocery Store Tabloid Article!
This original article is EXTREMELY misleading. “SOAR” has a very small part that has to do with the Registry – and the Texas registry requires ANNUAL checks (quarterly on a very few) not “weekly”. The Austin unit is, now that it’s been reduced, STILL larger than that of almost any other city in the state in terms of Registry clerks. Typical media scare tactics regarding SOs.
Hysteria journalism at its finest.
Cheorkee reasoning is what much of this registry is all about, not some vain babbling. You make a good point and many of you all but if we all remember didn’t we come to American to get away from oppression and/taxation. Are we all in a type of penalty box with this registry with a vain stroke of a pen.