Texas State Police and Austin Police Partner to Increase Patrols and Traffic Stops in Austin

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) was deployed to Austin to help the Austin Police Department with short staffing and long response times to 911 calls. While violent crime has dropped, concerns of racial profiling and overpolicing in Black and Latino neighborhoods have arisen. Nearly 90% of those arrested by DPS on misdemeanor charges since March 30 were Black or Latino. Austin officials are struggling between two conflicting results of inviting the state’s law enforcement agency to patrol their city streets.