Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Republican, tweeted out late Sunday that he
intends to sign a bill that would essentially prevent cities in the state
to defund police departments.

The governor retweeted a post from Kenneth Casaday, the president of the
Austin Police Association, that was critical of the response time for a
shooting call early Sunday.

Casaday said the call came in at 5:35 a.m. and there were no units
available in the city to respond for 12 minutes. He said the victim
suffered a critical injury after being shot in the head. Police finally
arrived at the scene at 5:51 a.m., he said.

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Abbott used the shooting to underscore the need for police funding and
said, "This is what defunding the police looks like."

"Austin is incapable of timely responding to a victim shot in the head.
Texas won�t tolerate this," he said.

Austin police did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Fox News
seeking information about the shooting that Casaday mentioned and if
funding restraints played a role in the response time.

The Austin American-Statesman reported that the City Council voted last
year to reallocate up to $150 million from the police department. The
paper reported that the city reduced the department�s operational budget
by about $21.5 million. The paper said the savings were made by delaying
to police academies.

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The Texas House of Representatives has passed House Bill 1900, and a Texas
Senate committee is debating the bill.

The NBC affiliate reported that the bill calls for the state to take a
portion of the sales tax for cities in violation and divert them to state
coffers.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-abbott-says-hell-sign-bill-that-
will-prevent-cities-from-defunding-police