Austin metropolis council below hearth for police scarcity after household in suspected DUI crash waits hours for assist

A Texas couple expressed outrage after it took Austin police over two hours to answer 911 calls when their car was hit head-on by a suspected drunk driver.

The couple, who had their two younger kids within the automotive, claimed the hours-long response time allowed the driving force to sober up stroll away with solely a minor site visitors violation.

Lacey and Dustin Purciful joined “Fox & Pals” alongside their lawyer, who ripped the Austin metropolis council for slashing the police division’s price range and talent to do its job.

“We should not have sufficient cops right here,” lawyer Adam Loewy stated Thursday. “The actual-life consequence of that’s what Lacey and Dustin simply went by way of. You name a police officer, there’s not sufficient cops, and also you sit on the market on a street injured together with your kids and nobody exhibits up for 2 and a half hours. It’s disgraceful.”

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Lacey stated the household was driving in North Austin Saturday afternoon when a male driver reduce throughout two lanes of site visitors and slammed into them head-on. She stated the driving force, who refused to exit his car for 30 minutes, smelled of alcohol and admitted he was coming from a bar.

The couple and witnesses referred to as 911 a number of occasions earlier than they have been lastly advised the reality concerning the state of affairs.

“After the fourth or fifth name to 911, the girl that answered simply flat out advised me that there is simply not sufficient police to answer this incident,” Dustin stated.

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Loewy stated the response points started when town council went to “warfare” with the police drive over funding and their contract.

“The women and men on the Austin Police Division are doing the perfect they will, they usually’re doing job in tough circumstances,” he stated. “However there’s not sufficient of them. And the explanation there’s not sufficient is that this metropolis council has been in warfare with the police for at the very least three to 4 years. They tried to defund the police division by $100 million in 2020. And even a couple of months in the past, they refused to vote on a four-year deal for the police union.” 

Lacey, who was seen with bandages round her wrists throughout the interview, stated her daughter suffered a sprained groin and bruising from the impression.

“They’re traumatized,” she stated of her kids.

“This man walked away with a easy site visitors violation and remains to be on the street. That’s terrifying.”

The Austin Police Division confirmed to Fox Information Digital that they acquired the 911 name at 4:18 p.m. and the primary police unit was not assigned till 6:11 p.m. as a result of “that sector and surrounding sectors have been busy aiding with different emergency calls.” The primary officer arrived on the scene at roughly 6:35 p.m., the division stated.

“Because of the incidents and calls that our officers attend, we could not at all times have sufficient officers to be at each name as soon as they got here in. Our officers and 9-1-1 operators work laborious on daily basis to deal with the excessive quantity of calls that we could obtain … The Metropolis and APD is engaged on revolutionary methods to handle this challenge, together with an intensified and focused recruitment marketing campaign to fill vacancies,” the division stated in a press release to “Fox & Pals.” 

Fox Information’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

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