THE OTHER TEACHER UNION:

Austin, Texas, has made some of the most dramatic changes in the country, directly cutting roughly $20m from the police department, and moving $80m from the agency by shifting certain services out of law enforcement. The city has gone from spending 40% of its $1.1bn general fund on police to now allocating about 26% to law enforcement.

"Public health and public safety are at the heart of this," said Chris Harris, the criminal justice director at Texas Appleseed, a local not-for-profit. "When we take policing away, we are actually filling that void with alternatives that we know are going to help."

The Austin police funds were reallocated to emergency medical services for Covid-19, community medics, mental health first responders, services for homeless people, substance abuse programs, food access, workforce development, abortion services, victim support, parks and more. The city council is using money saved from the police budget to buy two hotels to provide supportive housing for homeless residents.

"For decades, Austin has spent so many dollars policing homelessness, jailing the homeless, and paying for emergency rooms and 911 calls instead of reinvesting those same dollars to finally start reducing homelessness," said Casar, the local councilmember. "By adjusting the police budget even just a little bit, we are going to be able to house and help hundreds of people with these two hotels ... and I hope we'll be able to buy more."

Austin has started redirecting certain 911 calls to mental health professionals - a move meant to provide help to those crises instead of a potentially deadly response by police, Casar said: "We know that we can solve the mental health crisis with treatment and care, not with handcuffs and jail."

The redirected funds are also meant to benefit the crime victims who have been traditionally neglected and mistreated by law enforcement, advocates said.

Marina Garrett, a 25-year-old Austin resident and supporter of the defund efforts, has spoken out about how police mishandled her rape case. After she reported that she was sexually assaulted in 2015 at age 19, she submitted to a forensic exam, but detectives didn't move forward while awaiting results for her rape kit, which was impacted by a huge backlog.

During that time, the police forensic lab shut down amid claims of misconduct and incompetence, and Garrett's case dragged on: "It was completely devastating. You wake up every day, and it's all you can think about. My whole life was on pause for two years. "

It took two years for the results to come back, and ultimately police and prosecutors did not move forward with a case: "I started to realize that police were no help ... and that police were making survivors wish they had not come forward," said Garrett, who is part of a class-action lawsuit against Austin police.

With reinvested police funds, Austin is now moving forward with a new independent forensic science department. Garrett and other survivors have long pushed for the change. She said it was a small step to reduce some of police's jurisdiction over sexual assault survivors, but that law enforcement remained largely ill-equipped to support victims.

"We can't just keep throwing money at police and expect them to change their ways and culture, which is sexist and racist," she said. "There are groups that are trained to provide support to survivors and help them find healing and justice, separate and apart from police."

Alicia Dean, a city spokesperson, declined to comment on Garrett's case, but said the police department supported the change in forensics, adding in a statement, "the city is committed to improving best practices and outcomes of sexual assault reporting, processing, investigations and prosecutions. We want all victims to feel safe, heard and have confidence in every step of the process."

One of the greatest obstacles to defunding law enforcement agencies are powerful police unions, which have long opposed reforms and negotiated strong protections in their contracts that typically make it impossible for cities to terminate or lay off officers.

Unions have launched aggressive PR campaigns to counter the movement. In Austin, the Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) created highway billboards saying "Warning! Austin Police Defunded, Enter at Your Own Risk" and "Limited Support Next 20 Miles" - and put up the signs in September, before the new budget had gone into effect.

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