AUSTIN -- The cost of security for police officers at City Hall at the Occupy Austin movement reached $700,000 on December 31, 2011.
Assistant Austin Police Chief David Carter told members of the city's Public Safety Commission Friday night that he would not be surprised if the security cost reached $1.2 million in a month or two.
Occupy Austin set up at Austin City Hall on October 6, 2011. What isn’t clear is how long the Occupy Austin movement will stay there.
Last fall, some with the Occupy Austin movement told KVUE News that protesters would be at City Hall at least until February 2012. Friday night, Austin Occupier Claire Hirschkind said that she and other protesters are there indefinitely.
“I think the right of them to assemble at City Hall, or assemble on other public property in Austin can't be infringed upon. So as long as I think there's a feeling by some part of the public that somehow their voices are not being heard, that opportunities are being denied, then I think it could last a long time,” said Michael Lauderdale, the head of Austin’s Public Safety Commission.
Chief Carter said that while the Occupy Austin security costs isn’t putting the Austin Police Department's overtime budget in serious jeopardy right now, he is concerned about the impact to other crime preventative measures if the Occupy Austin movement is still going on in October of 2012.
“If those dollars are no longer there then, because we're spending them elsewhere, then we have to go back to the city and that's something we don't desire to do,” says Assistant Chief David Carter.
Carter also said that police response times have gone back to where they were before the Occupy Austin protests, which officers blamed for a 3-4 minute increase in response time to non-emergencies.
Austin police will have another briefing on Occupy Austin costs and impact to the community in February.
