TX: Austin sees hundreds of sex offender cases removed from police officer supervision due to defunding

Source: foxnews.con 1/8/22

A source tells Fox News that one of the sex offenders moved to civilian supervision sexually assaulted an autistic teenager

Hundreds of convicted sex offenders are no longer being monitored by sworn police officers in Austin, Texas due to the city’s move to defund the police and cut police academy classes. 

As of 2019, there were about 1,600 registered sex offenders in Austin according to the state’s sex offender database. There is no law preventing any of them from living near schools or other places where children tend to congregate, according to a local news report. About 650 of those cases were handled by officers who checked in on the registered sex offenders weekly to ensure they were where they reported themselves to be. But three of those officers were sent back to patrol as a result of the decision to defund the police, including slashing three cadet classes at the police academy, in August 2020. Defunding the police forced the department to cut the Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (SOAR).

Those cases once handled by sworn police officers are now being monitored by civilian employees, including two who only work part-time. The civilian monitors lack arrest authority and some question whether they are able to keep up with the increased caseload.

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This says it all:

“In order to prioritize the Department’s ability to respond to 911 phone calls and keep the community safe, APD has had to reallocate some personnel from our support units back to patrol. The Sex Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit (SOAR) is one of the units affected by these staffing challenges and lost 3 officers who were re-assigned to patrol in the process…”

You have to read between the lines, but this cop basically says that “real police work” is what keeps the community safe and not this S.O.A.R. bullcrap!!!
I love it!

Sure pull at people’s heart strings to get more money! If that don’t work scare the hell out of them. Just in) Sex offenders falling from the sky’s lock your children up. And bolt your doors. Even your pet is in danger. Put fido in the basement and god forbid the goldfish is not dressed. Sex offenders will attack anything. Save your hole’s for you might have a dick attack you. Hmmm or is it the cops who scare you out of money. With sex offenders all over the place. To me yes defund the lier. Money talks. Problem is cops will lie for it.

I’d really like to hear someone explain what role the registry played in the investigation of the alleged rape of the autistic teenager. After that, an explanation of how a “compliance check” (read: random search for an innocuous violation) would have prevented it.

I have a form of autism and I feel like I’m getting screwed by the government. Maybe I should stop showering and they’ll leave me alone.

This presents an ideal opportunity for the public to learn whether Registries have any actual effect on public safety.
Be patient. The proof awaits!

(I anticipate the same number of offenses with, as usual, the great majority of them being committed by NON-Registrants.)

Civilian supervision?? EEEEK! I’ll bet the Byrne Grant folks didn’t see that coming. Since when are police officers responsible for supervising DOC\DPS clients in TX? I’m in WI, and when local police assist SOR agents in arrest for failure to register, I ask to local cop ” Do we arrest folks for absconding if there is no paperwork in the record saying the person was actually on parole or probation in the first place? ” Fact is SCOTUS itself identified this impropriety in Kentucky v Padilla. The propper paperwork is necessary to proceed in civil matters. However, that hurdle can be waived so long as its waived knowingly – see standard waiver of civil rights.