Just in time for Labor Day weekend, the Austin Police Department has two new state-of-the art patrol boats for Lake Austin. They put the police boats in the water for the first time Thursday, and plan to use them this weekend. They will be using the new, marked police boats to look for intoxicated and unsafe boaters. Officers say they have had to get a little creative when it comes to enforcing the noise ordinance on Lake Austin.
Austin Police's two new patrol boats have dual engines that take them over 50 miles per hour on Lake Austin. They are quiet, compared to the blaring music in the lake's coves each weekend.
“It just reverberates all throughout the cove and it causes a lot of issues, a lot of complaints,” Austin Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez says.
The city has put up signs. So have homeowners, who often call police over the noise. By the time officers get there, it is too late.
Police Chief Art Acevedo said, “We noticed that these loud folks that had their music blaring, so they could be heard for quite a distance. As soon as they saw the patrol boats coming, they signaled one another, and you would think that you were in Sunday school or something by the time the patrol boats were there.”
With the new boats, police can approach more quickly and quietly. There will also be other elements of Austin Police which music-blaring boaters in the coves will not be so aware of.
“This weekend in response to that, we will be having police officers in plain clothes in that area, potentially in boats, that you won't even know who they are,” Chief Acevedo explained, “And when you see that patrol boat approaching, it will be too late.”
Austin Police will respond to complaints from lakefront residents in both Rollingwood and Austin, because the lake belongs to the City of Austin.
“It's about being safe and respectful anywhere in the city of Austin,” Mayor Pro Tem Martinez said. “We want folks to have a good time, but you’ve got to do it with some responsibility.”
The standard excessive noise fine is $248. The new patrol boats cost police $102,000 each. Police purchased them with seized assets from criminals.
Police also remind everyone that the Labor Day weekend is a no-refusal weekend. This means that police will seek warrants to draw blood from boaters and drivers who are suspected of being intoxicated and do not voluntarily submit to field sobriety testing.
