After two years of service, the Chief of the Austin Police Department (APD) in Texas has surprisingly announced his retirement.
On Monday, Joseph Chacon, 55, revealed he would be leaving his post in the first week of September.
Even though Chacon had been in law enforcement for 31 years—six with El Paso police and 25 with APD—he was taken aback by the thought of retiring.
After careful consideration however, he realized that it was time to leave.
Since 2021 has been a tumultuous year for police departments across the nation, it is no surprise that the APD faced its fair share of challenges over this past year as well.
Just weeks before George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last May, Christopher Taylor—an Austin officer—shot and killed Michael Ramos.
In response to these deaths and politicians calling to defund police forces nationwide, The Austin City Council voted to cut $150 million from APD’s budget—a third of their total funds.
While they have since restored much of those cuts, 800 officers have left since 2017 and there are still 330 vacancies remaining on staff.
Chief Chacon stood by his record during his announcement despite these turbulent two years serving as head chief.
He noted new resources being dedicated for sexual assault investigations along with implementing crowd control protocols and providing officers ongoing training concerning racism awareness and elimination efforts.
During a press conference on Monday he thanked many people including his wife before getting emotional about expressing gratitude towards all who served alongside him during this time period.
He also defended them claiming that proper policing often requires making “split-second decisions” which can appear controversial later on down the line but ultimately serve to protect others from harm’s way.
Despite some members within Austin’s community remaining distrustful towards Chief Chacon’s leadership abilities due to lack of accountability among other issues, most leaders expressed admiration for him regarding decades worth of public service.
