The Downtown Austin Alliance and Austin City Council Member Kathie Tovo will hold a panel discussion Monday morning about current issues involving public safety in downtown Austin, including current systems and procedures, interagency communication and coordination, tools and resources.
The forum comes less than a week after the Downtown Austin Alliance received an update on gun-related crimes. According the APD Commander Jeff Greenwalt, downtown is on pace to shatter the total number of gun crimes committed in 2020.
“If you look at 2021, those numbers are not quite year-to-date. They go to the end of June, just the first two quarters, and we’re at 27 already,” Greenwalt said. “Now, I think it’s an easy, kind of natural thing to do is just double that number and say if we went on this same progression we’d be at about 54 at the end of the year.”
Greenwalt said there has been a fairly steady increase in violent gun-related crimes since 2016:
- 2016: 26
- 2017: 29
- 2018: 35
- 2019: 35
- 2020: 34
Greenwalt also reported the number of gun possession crimes not involving an injury is also way up for the year.
Attendees at this morning’s forum will also hear from Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon, Travis County Attorney Delia Garza, and Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza. It begins at 9:00 a.m. Attendance is open to all but registration is required. You can RSVP and find all of the other details by CLICKING HERE.
