AUSTIN, Texas — Austin officials say they have a rough timeline of when Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers could return to the city.
The Austin Public Safety Commission met on Monday night. The commission said it will be at least two weeks until troopers can return to Austin from the Texas-Mexico border.
The commission also provided answers about the laws that troopers are expected to follow. Officials said troopers are set to follow local laws, and while they were assisting the Austin Police Department, they were following the same procedures as APD officers.
"The misdemeanor marijuana arrests that became such a concern – it is likely that the vast majority of them are what occurred on an event where they [troopers] made a warrant-based arrest that they had to make," said Jonathan Kringen, chief data officer for APD.
Officials also said that other times when people were charged with possession of marijuana, it was just one of the things they were charged with. They say there were very few people arrested and charged solely based on marijuana possession.
However, the commission did say that this is data and information that it does not have access to to verify its accuracy.