Austin police nearing full staff

Trainee grads to nearly fill department by end of year, officials say.

Austin police remain on pace to be staffed at nearly 100 percent by the end of the year, department leaders said Monday.

Assistant Chief Troy Gay said police managed to cut a 144-officer deficit by nearly half with a class of about 70 cadets who completed their training at the police academy in June.

Three months later, the department has 96 cadets spread between two classes that will graduate in December.

“Current vacancies, we’re sitting at 96, which is why if (the cadets) graduated today, we would be at 100 percent,” Gay said.

To hit that number, every cadet going through the academy would have to finish, and no officers currently employed by the department could leave.

Austin police can’t overhire, so the department will always have some vacancies as officers retire or leave the force.

Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said the department loses four or five officers every month through attrition, so the department won’t be fully staffed, but it will be very close when the next cadet classes earn their badges.

Gay put the number at about 99 percent, with an estimated vacancy count of 16 to 20 officers.

At the beginning of June, vacancies within the department were tallied at 144, police said.

The shortfall prompted police commanders to tap detectives and other nonpatrol officers for duty on patrol shifts while author-