AFD, ATCEMS and APD all made proposals to Austin's Public Safety Commission this week.
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin’s public safety departments are asking for major funding increases in next year’s budget.
“We have a very, very bad trend in firefighter mental health,” Nicks said. “We’ve had three suicides in the last several years.” “At any given point, at like 2 a.m. on a Friday night, we’re pulling in at least ten of our neighborhood ambulances, and we only have 40 of them,” said Selena Xie, President of the Austin EMS Association.
Xie says by having dedicated resources in these popular downtown spots, it would allow the surrounding areas not to lose resources. There are currently police patrolling the lake on the weekend, but no dedicated medics to patrol all of the heat and intoxication calls that typically come from out on the water. Over at the airport, there are eight firefighters on location 24/7, but only two medics are present, for 12 hours per day.
Xie says that when there is a high call volume, a dispatcher will get the address where the emergency is, then send an ambulance and disconnect to get to the next call.
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