In context: 'Operation Undaunted' and crime in Austin
U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer is the latest official to link rising crime rates in Austin with the Austin City Council’s recent decision to cut police funding.
On Dec. 18, Sofer stood at a podium before Austin’s press corps to announce that his office will be joining state efforts to combat violent crime in the capital — an initiative called Operation Undaunted. Sofer stood flanked by two large cardboard cutouts with charts that compared the city’s homicide and aggravated assault rates in 2020 to those in 2019.
Through the first 10 months of this year, the city’s homicide rate was up by 54% compared to the first 10 months of 2019 — from 26 last year to 40 in 2020. Aggravated assaults were up by 19% as of October, from 2,200 in 2019 to 2,620 this year. Austin is one of several cities across the U.S. that has recorded sharp increases in homicides since the beginning of the pandemic.