SAN ANTONIO \u2013 When shots are fired or cars are flipped on the highway, people expect to see the San Antonio Police Department respond.<\/p>\n
But what about at a simple fender bender, or ticketing illegally parked cars in a crowded neighborhood on a weekend night?<\/p>\n
The City of San Antonio is considering alternatives to sending officers to do parking enforcement or handle the low-priority calls that make up about 10% of the 1.8 million dispatched calls each year: minor car accidents, lost or stolen property, found property, or noise enforcement. <\/p>\n
The possibilities include having retired officers or civilian employees respond instead, or even having people file their own online reports for minor crashes. <\/p>\n
But while the police union says it\u2019s open to the idea, it does not want to see a broader change.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1), who is also chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, submitted the policy proposal that got the discussion going. She says quality of life concerns, like parking and noise enforcement, are her focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for is a swifter response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Neighborhoods like King William and Lavaca have issues with parking on nights and weekends, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are they gonna do? Call the non-emergency line and wait for someone to come out and give someone a ticket, and that person may have already left in that amount of time,\u201d she told KSAT.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a a concern for how do we get more enforcement around these low-level offenses that can be a nuisance to a lot of residents? So that\u2019s why we want to support this. And we also want our police officers focusing on what they should be focusing on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) made a similar comment during a Nov. 17 Public Safety Committee meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers cannot be patrolling if they\u2019re busy handling all these low-level calls. They cannot respond to the violent crime if they\u2019re doing this, they can\u2019t be proactive. They\u2019re responding to these things.\u201d <\/p>\n
The city has added 205 patrol officers<\/a> over the past three years in an attempt to allow more time for proactive policing. <\/p>\n Kate Kinnison, the city\u2019s chief innovation officer, presented the committee with examples of other cities that handed off some responsibilities from police. <\/p>\n In Denver, she said 15 civilian report technicians handled 15,318 hours last year of non-emergency calls like theft, vandalism, and minor vehicle crashes.<\/p>\n New Orleans has seven contracted agents that respond to low-risk, non-injury car crashes.<\/p>\n She also pointed to Houston and Dallas as examples of cities that don\u2019t respond to every traffic accident, like San Antonio does.<\/p>\n