The resolution includes two pilot programs, which will each cost $500,000 and be funded through the American Rescue Plan—funds that were given to the county for COVID-19 relief.
Commissioners directed the Justice and Public Safety and Health and Human Services offices to gather data for the pilot programs—such as a cost estimate and a list of possible partners—and present their findings to the court March 1. These offices were also directed to work with law enforcement and research how and why homicides are occurring throughout the county.
The pilot programs are scheduled to kick off after this four-month period of gathering resources, County Judge Andy Brown said.
One of these pilot programs is a hospital-based violence intervention program that will provide both medical care and mentorship to victims of gun violence. The goal of the program is to prevent victims from retaliation as people who are victims of interpersonal violence have a higher risk of being reinjured or committing a crime themselves, according to The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention. Participants in an HVIP program in Oakland, California, were 70% less likely to be arrested again and 60% less likely to have future criminal involvement compared to a control group, according to county documents.
The second pilot program is a prosecutor-led gun violence intervention program, which will redirect people accused of gun violence to support services.
Commissioners also voted to apply for a grant that would provide funding for the National Integrated Ballistic Intelligence Network—a program that collects shell casing evidence from crime scenes and pools it into a national database.
The NIBIN program helps police identify guns used in previous crimes and increases the ability for police to work together to close cases, said Jeffrey Kennedy, group supervisor for the Crime Gun Intelligence Center, at a gun violence briefing in September.
While the Austin Police Department has access to a NIBIN machine, there is a backlog of cases, and it is not readily available to neighboring cities.
“We’re looking at two- to three-month turnaround time to get back the evidence that we collected,” Pflugerville Police Department Chief Jason O’Malley said. “Having immediate access to NIBIN here in Travis County will be paramount to us solving cases and also holding people accountable.”
Travis County will apply for a grant from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which runs the NIBIN program, to fund the machine and staff to operate it. If the funding is awarded, NIBIN will be used for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office and nearby communities.
Travis County commissioners, staff and representatives from several gun violence prevention groups, including Life Anew, Community Action and Tomorrow’s Promise, spoke at the Nov. 1 meeting and press conference in support of the resolution.
The resolution from Travis County commissioners comes after several months of receiving gun violence prevention briefs from law enforcement and community groups. Further, Brown said the court was pushed to take action when the 2021 medical examiner report revealed gun violence is the No. 1 cause of nonaccidental death in Travis County, including homicide and suicide.
Brown shared a slew of other gun violence statistics at the meeting, including Texas women are 24% more likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other states and that 2021 marked the highest number of homicides in Travis County—110—in at least 15 years.
“Gun violence is an issue that touches all communities and many families,” Commissioner Jeffery Travillion said. “We are working to take common-sense steps to reduce the number of guns and strategically create positive options for our community members. Our communities with real options are also experiencing less gun violence. We are committed to working together
to reduce the flow of guns and actively build more constructive opportunities for our community members.”
