APD is so short-staffed that it's shifted efforts away from cracking down on speeders and other traffic violators in recent years.
Most traffic deaths in Austin happen on the busiest roads with the highest speed limits like I-35.
"It often takes the threat of an expensive ticket or other legal consequences to get drivers' attention and to motivate them to make adjustments to their driving," TxDOT's director of traffic safety Michael Chacon said.TxDOT's head of traffic safety Michael Chacon, speaking Thursday outside TxDOT's Austin District headquarters, said the threat of speeding tickets and other fines are needed to deter traffic violators.
But APD is so short-staffed that it's shifted efforts away from cracking down on speeders and other traffic violators in recent years. APD's traffic enforcement units have been stripped of officers, who've been reassigned to patrol duties like responding to 911 calls.of hiring Travis County constables and sheriff's deputies to work overtime traffic enforcement shifts. But with Travis County facing its own law enforcement staffing shortages, the proposal hasn't happened yet.
"Long story short, there's no specific program set up for us to help participate in [Operation Slowdown] due to staffing," said William White, a lieutenant with APD's Highway Enforcement Command."We participate in the sense of: If an officer sees a driver committing a violation, he has that option to pull the subject over."An Austin police officer scans U.S. 183 for speeding drivers in 2015.
The city has seen an even more dramatic rise in the number of people seriously injured in crashes: 219 so far this year, up 20% from the same time in 2021.