San Antonio Report
by Iris Dimmick
The expansion of specialized teams dedicated to responding to 911 calls involving mental health received broad support from San Antonio City Council members as they reviewed the police department’s proposed budget on Wednesday.
Despite his support for that program, known as SA CORE, Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) challenged other increases to the police budget, including adding 105 patrol officers to the rank and file.
“If we viewed this budget through the lens of needs versus wants, where do those other needs stack up against an outdoor fitness center, or driving track [for police]?” McKee-Rodriguez asked. “I don’t feel that we’re improving our mental health response with the urgency that we should.”
The East Side councilman also questioned investments in helicopters, an outdoor training gym for cadets and other police-related expenses.
These investments are required for a “modern police department” like SAPD, Police Chief William McManus said.
“We don’t have the issues, at least right now, recruiting [as] most other departments do, and it’s because we have a good department — it’s because we are a well-equipped, well-qualified police department and that’s what attracts people here,” McManus said, adding later that: “It’s a necessity, not an amenity.”
The proposed police budget represents an 8.5% increase, or $48.5 million, over the adopted 2023 budget. SAPD’s budget represents the largest portion, $621.2 million, of the city’s proposed $3.7 billion 2024 budget.
Violent crime is down 14% so far this year compared to the same time period last year, McManus said. He largely attributed that to the city’s hot spot policing strategy, part of a broader plan to reduce violent crime.
The addition of 105 patrol officers, the largest batch of approved positions in the city’s history, is part of a three-year plan to add 360 officers to the force in order to decrease the amount of time they are responding to calls and increase time spent patrolling and building relationships with the community.
“You could call the patrol officers SAFFE-lite, because they’ll have more time to engage and be visible,” McManus told council, referring to specialized officers assigned to liaison between the community and the department.
“I don’t think anybody’s saying that there aren’t additional measures other than police presence that can be used to reduce crime,” Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) said. “But … police presence alone can certainly decrease crime in certain situations.”
To increase hiring capacity, the budget includes five additional police academy instructors and adds another class of cadets for a total of five classes to graduate up to 235 cadets next year, compared to 159 last year, officials said.
The police department is not solely responsible for public safety, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. “The investments that we’re making upstream from the police department are extremely important: Making sure that we’re making healthful investments and social services and infrastructure, etc., are part of our crime fighting equation.”
Ananda Tomas, executive director of police reform advocacy group ACT 4 SA, said the hot spot initiative should not receive all the credit for a reduction in violent crime.
“We have more seriously invested in mental health, housing and financial assistance in a way that we haven’t done in years because of the pandemic,” Tomas said. Those upstream investments “have correlations to public safety” as well.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus (center) responds to audience questions during a public discussion about the proposed police budget at San Antonio College on Aug. 16.
Credit: Bria Woods / San Antonio Report
The police budget should be more responsive to public input, just as the city has been with the Animal Care Services budget, she said.
Animal Care Services is slated to receive a 26% increase, the largest percentage increase in the proposed budget, bringing that department’s budget up to $26.9 million. The budgetary response was driven by a fatal dog attack in February.
The late-night, fatal shooting of a woman experiencing a mental health crisis in June should drive the city to expand the SA CORE team — which deploys a police officer, paramedic and a mental health clinician to respond to low-risk mental health calls — to operate 24/7.
“We need to have more [CORE] teams immediately,” she said. “Both lives are valuable, and both show a gap in services that exist. They both need to see the same equitable funding and prioritization.”
Under the current budget proposal, CORE will expand from one team that only covers the central substation boundaries to three teams that operate citywide. Those teams would continue to operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. — when 911 experiences the most mental health calls. Several council members indicated support for further expanding the hours of the program, which started as a pilot in 2022.
“I would like to see us move towards that, if possible,” said Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6).
Even 24-hour coverage of three CORE teams could not have responded to the more than 32,000 mental health calls received by 911 last year, SAPD Assistant Chief Karen Falks. “I wish I could have 10 or 12 teams to go around the city.”
Council is slated to vote on the fiscal year 2024 budget on Sept. 14 after reviewing several more department proposals. There are two more budget town halls scheduled before then.