SAN ANTONIO – When shots are fired or cars are flipped on the highway, people expect to see the San Antonio Police Department respond.
But what about at a simple fender bender, or ticketing illegally parked cars in a crowded neighborhood on a weekend night?
The City of San Antonio is considering alternatives to sending officers to do parking enforcement or handle the low-priority calls that make up about 10% of the 1.8 million dispatched calls each year: minor car accidents, lost or stolen property, found property, or noise enforcement.
The possibilities include having retired officers or civilian employees respond instead, or even having people file their own online reports for minor crashes.
But while the police union says it’s open to the idea, it does not want to see a broader change.
Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1), who is also chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, submitted the policy proposal that got the discussion going. She says quality of life concerns, like parking and noise enforcement, are her focus.
“What we’re looking for is a swifter response,” she said.
Neighborhoods like King William and Lavaca have issues with parking on nights and weekends, she says.
“What are they gonna do? Call the non-emergency line and wait for someone to come out and give someone a ticket, and that person may have already left in that amount of time,” she told KSAT.
“There was a a concern for how do we get more enforcement around these low-level offenses that can be a nuisance to a lot of residents? So that’s why we want to support this. And we also want our police officers focusing on what they should be focusing on.”
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) made a similar comment during a Nov. 17 Public Safety Committee meeting.
“Officers cannot be patrolling if they’re busy handling all these low-level calls. They cannot respond to the violent crime if they’re doing this, they can’t be proactive. They’re responding to these things.”
The city has added 205 patrol officers over the past three years in an attempt to allow more time for proactive policing.
Kate Kinnison, the city’s chief innovation officer, presented the committee with examples of other cities that handed off some responsibilities from police.
In Denver, she said 15 civilian report technicians handled 15,318 hours last year of non-emergency calls like theft, vandalism, and minor vehicle crashes.
New Orleans has seven contracted agents that respond to low-risk, non-injury car crashes.
She also pointed to Houston and Dallas as examples of cities that don’t respond to every traffic accident, like San Antonio does.
According to Houston Police policy, dispatchers instruct drivers involved in minor crashes without any injuries to exchange information and make a report at a police station.
Dallas Police allow drivers to file their reports online. Though the city announced in 2023 it would begin requiring online reporting for non-emergency offenses like minor crashes, a DPD spokesman told KSAT on Friday it was encouraged, but not mandatory.
It could, however, take a while for an officer to get out there otherwise, he said.
Kaur said online reporting for crashes could be an option, but she does not want to completely remove some kind of on-scene response.
“If our constituent is calling for help, they’re wanting to talk to someone and see what they can do,” she told KSAT.
Kaur also raised the possibility during the committee meeting of using something similar to San Antonio Fire Department’s telemedicine app so “it’s still an officer responding and they can still see it.”
Kinnison said the next steps include exploring options to address crashes like Houston or Dallas do, as well as the use of the technology and online reporting for additional low-priority calls.
San Antonio Police Officers Association President Danny Diaz said he was “okay” with what he saw presented at the Public Safety Committee meeting.
However, already wary of putting responsibilities in non-police hands, Diaz does not want to see an outside vendor contract to do the work.
He also says handling other concerns like burglary reports or speeding enforcement need to stay with sworn officers.
“The best solution? Give us the officers that we need so that we can do our job correctly. That’s the best solution,” he told KSAT.
The Public Safety Committee is expected to discuss the ideas further in January or February.