The City of Austin's safety was the topic of discussion at the March 6 Engage Breakfast at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside Drive, where panelists identified three key issues to maintain and increase security for Austin residents.

"We are the third-safest city in the country as it relates to a lot of crime, so we're relatively safe," Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said. "Yet there's still a lot of people, as you turn on the news, that get hurt and killed, and property crime continues to be a huge problem."

Panelists included Acevedo; Dawn Handley, chief program operations officer with Austin Travis County Integral Care, which provides behavioral health and developmental disability services; and Michael Lauderdale, chairman of the City of Austin Public Safety Commission. The panel was moderated by KXAN anchor Robert Hadlock.

The Engage Breakfast series is organized by the nonprofit Leadership Austin and is a way to encourage discussion on issues facing the city by bringing in stakeholders and leaders in the community.

The three issues panelists focused on in terms of keeping residents safe and improving safety in general were the community's attitude toward crime and punishment, adequate mental health treatment and APD staffing as the city continues to grow.

Handley said the mental health care system has been underfunded for many years but is crucial in helping people get the care they need and possibly preventing some crime.

"We got an infusion [of money] for some crisis redesign, so you're building out your crisis services, but yet there were no funds for ongoing services," Handley said. "We know that education, early intervention and treatment—medication management—works. People do recover from mental illness. But what we don't have built-out in our system are those ongoing opportunities where they can continue to stay in services."

Handley said ATCIC partners with APD to do some co-responding with the mobile crisis outreach team to help divert minor offenses into care if the issue stemmed from mental illness.

Police staffing was another issue Acevedo spoke about as critical in public safety, saying APD is 450 to 500 officers below the national average based on the city's population.

Lauderdale said adequate staffing would lead to police officers being able to be a part of the community and able to engage with residents, rather than rushing from call to call.

"I have a vision of police where police are part of the community and are involved with all of us as members of the community, building social capital. What social capital is, is trust and reciprocity," Lauderdale said.

Acevedo said there is a possibility for a degradation of the city's quality of life when low staffing of the police department is coupled with a lax attitude in the community toward offenders.

"Add on top of [low staffing] a permissive attitude in this community where you can kill two people drunk driving, [and] you get probation," Acevedo said. "You can go down the street, run over a lady in the middle of the night with video showing that you're falling-down drunk and what did we give that person? Probation."

Despite the challenges Austin faces, Acevedo he still considers the city safe.

"We are relatively safe, and if you exercise good common sense and good judgement, you should not end up being the victim of a violent crime in this city," Acevedo said.

The next Engage Breakfast is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. April 4 in the Kodosky Lounge at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside Drive. The topic of discussion will be growth in the Hispanic population.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.leadershipaustin.org/programs/engage/series.