Austinites affected by several types of crimes will have additional resources available through the city, after officials accepted new grant funding to bring on a half-dozen counseling and victim navigator staff.
The breakdown
City Council accepted a $507,510 grant from Gov. Greg Abbott's Criminal Justice Division on Feb. 15 to fund two counseling and four victim services positions.
The counselors will work with detectives tackling hate crimes, elder abuse, fraud and financial crimes by offering various support services after a crisis. The four Victim Services Navigators will help survivors move through the justice system and secure some of their basic needs. Staffers will focus on domestic violence and sexual assault; youth violence and teen dating issues; and hate crimes.
Council member Alison Alter, a longtime advocate for improving Austin's response to sex crimes and sponsor of the city's We All Belong anti-hate campaign, pointed out the grant program's potential to focus on Austin's increase in bias crimes.
In a statement, Division Manager Kachina Clark said the Austin Police Department is "very excited" to add the new positions to its Victim Services Division counseling team.
"We are thrilled to continue to grow our Victim Services team within the Austin Police Department as we work toward the reduction of harmful impacts of trauma experienced by survivors of crime within our community. With the addition of the 6 new grant funded positions, the Victim Services Division will increase to a staff of 58," Clark said in an email.
The big picture
The added funding comes months after nearly $1 million was reserved for various policing programs and work related to sex crimes, including the grant positions.
That move followed City Council's settlement of a lawsuit with several sexual assault survivors in 2022 due to the systemic mishandling of their cases by the Austin Police Department over years. As a condition of that settlement, city leaders publicly apologized to several plaintiffs this January.
What's next
According to city staff, Austin will be adjusting the temporary positions into full-time positions to help with retention as the annual grant nears its Sept. 30 conclusion.
While the city will seek future funding, it remains to be seen if it will continue receiving state financial support for the APD's crisis intervention project in the future. The city applied for another year of support in early February.
"The [Victims of Crime Act] fund source is highly competitive and, similar to last year, we will likely not know the award decision until after the start of the next fiscal year. That said, the state has been incredibly supportive of APD’s Victim Services programing for decades, and we are hopeful for a positive outcome," staff reported.
Alter also said officials should be mindful of ongoing funding for the positions during their summer budgeting discussions.
