From Norfolk Daily News:

In Austin, the proposal failed because it was an unfunded and unrealistic mandate to increase minimum police staffing and require officers to spend a third of their time on community engagement — rather than responding to calls of service.

Lisel Petis, a former prosecutor and now senior fellow for Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties at the R Street Institute in Washington, D.C., wrote, “While the call for police to spend more time on community engagement was well-intentioned, the timing is poor when one considers Austin police have already declared they cannot respond to non-emergency calls due to staffing issues.”

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