Friday, March 10, 2023 kicks off the start of the spring festival season in Austin. Tens of thousands of people are expected to flock to Central Texas for South by Southwest, and the Austin Police Department is expected to have a heavy presence throughout downtown.
“We want everybody to know that our community is our eyes and our ears,” said Assistant Chief Jeff Greenwalt at a Monday press conference. “We want you to say something. If you see something, call 911 or 311.”
As Austin grapples with an ongoing problem with violence in the downtown area, gun crimes will be among the big focuses for police officers during the two weeks of the festival.
“Our organized crime division is going to be working both in uniform and in plain clothes to identify people who are carrying guns in an illegal capacity, and trying to arrest those people and seize those guns before they’re used in a violent crime,” Greenwalt said.
Greenwalt said APD will also be working in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza’s office on efforts regarding fentanyl.
“The DEA is working very closely with our organized crime unit to identify and disrupt any sort of illegal activity that might be happening,” he said. “Please know that if there’s an overdose that occurs in Austin, if there’s somebody who was reckless or negligent in the manner in which they dispersed, or sold, or distributed narcotics, that we will actively be looking for those people and holding them accountable.”
March is a busy month for Austin. Along with South by Southwest, the city will see the Texas Relays, a NASCAR race at Circuit of the Americas, and Spring Break.
