'This weekend was tragic:' Deadly Austin weekend highlights low APD staff numbers
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin's deadliest weekend so far in 2023 has some searching for more public safety solutions.
Police are currently investigating one homicide from Saturday, and three from Sunday.
As Austin Police Department Cpl. Jose Mendez provided an update at one of Sunday's homicide scenes, he — in an uncustomary move — addressed how APD staffing shortages have and will impact these current investigations.
“I know that the detectives are somewhat overwhelmed due to having a shortage of them,” Mendez said.
Homicide detectives have had to pull double duty helping out with patrol shifts as APD works to fill roughly 300 officer vacancies.
"It doesn't matter if it's homicide or some other crime. All of these detectives are being forced to go work patrol and supplement patrol shifts, so these caseloads are not getting picked up by other detectives," Jennifer Szimanski, public affairs director for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), said.
Saturday's homicide happened at an apartment complex in west Austin. Sunday's all happened in east Austin.
Alexandria Bills, who worked as a crime scene specialist for APD until 2021, provided insight on how long it can take to process homicide scenes.
"You're on scene for maybe like 5, 6 hours. If it's a really big scene, it's 10-12 hours, and that's just the scene. The next day you have to go back and pick up autopsy evidence," she said. "And that's all before they can even write the report."
The weekend's homicides are still under investigation.
"This weekend was tragic," said Steven Rivas, a public policy consultant in Austin. "From one call to the next, it was a real shock to the system."
He said he believes the city and the Austin Police Association coming to an agreement on a police contract will help with current staffing struggles.
The Texas Department of Public Safety was brought in to help assist APD amid this staffing crisis. The agency did elaborate Monday whether having troopers on the street helped alleviate any of APD's workload in responding to the homicides.