Austin s sexual assault response: Small steps forward despite federal challenges
The efforts of Austin and Travis County to address sexual assault are being hampered by new federal regulations. Local progress is still being made, though.
The Public Safety Commission had its second meeting to analyze local sex crime data on Monday. Presentations from the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, the Austin Police Department (APD), and the SAFE Alliance were given to the commission.
These three organizations were advised to share their work with the commission by the Austin Collective Sex Crimes Response Model Project (CSCRM). The team is still working to determine how best to publish information from all three organizations in one location.
According to Chair Nelly Paulina Ramrez, this is a short-term and flawed way to share all of this data collectively. We require a long-term solution that houses all of this data so that it is openly visible to everyone month after month.
The first person to deliver her statistics was Deanna Lichter, the commander of the APD’s Sex Crimes Unit. Early in 2025, APD received 14% more calls for sex offenses than the previous year.
Lichter stated, “At this time, we do not believe there is an actual increase in sex crimes throughout the city.” We think that an increase in call volume really indicates an improvement in APD’s services because sex offenses are known to be underreported nationally. More people are at ease enough to call the police about these incidents.
Lichter contrasted 2024 and early 2025 patterns for adult sex crimes. After APD started making adjustments to its case coding system in September 2024, she observed a dramatic rise in cases.
According to her, what we observe here is a true indication of better data management and quality.
According to Lichter, victim readiness is one of the major obstacles that APD faces when it comes to pursuing an investigation following a report. Thirty-seven survivors informed APD that they did not wish to take their cases further in 81 felony-level instances from January through March.
We are aware that this covers a broad spectrum of circumstances, and we are interested in learning more about how to assist survivors and successfully advance their cases. “Oh,” answered Lichter. We constantly make careful to give survivors advice on the statute of limitations and reopening cases.
After several unsuccessful attempts to follow up with survivors, other instances stopped. In answer to a query from Commissioner Rebecca Bernhardt, Lichter stated that it is particularly difficult to follow up with the homeless population in Austin. Lichter expects that APD will launch a poll this fall to gather more information regarding survivors’ experiences with the agency.
Another obstacle, according to Lichter, has been APD’s data integrity. For example, in 2022–2024, at least 25 sex crime cases were incorrectly listed as Warrant Issued Suspended, even though an arrest had been made in response to that warrant. Data integrity is a problem in other areas of APD’s work, such as hiring and recording the use of force, according to recent external reviews.
On the plus side, APD is investigating alcohol-facilitated sex offenses with grant funding.
Between 10 and 14 percent of documented cases had some connection to a bar or nightclub, according to Lichter. According to preliminary data, sex crime calls are more common in bars with several floors, no food service, or few female employees. “We are requesting that those bars act as true guardians of their customers,” Lichter continued. She pointed out that the city’s sSip Safely initiative, which emphasizes raising individual awareness about drink spiking on Sixth Street, is not the same as this engagement with bar and nightclub owners.
Commander Lichter admitted that the CSCRM was largely responsible for this advancement. Additionally, the frequency of meetings between the Austin Police Department and the offices of the district and county attorneys has increased.
The newly appointed head of Travis County’s Special Victims Unit, Andrea Austin, agreed that there had been a significant improvement in cooperation between the county and APD. In order to pinpoint areas that require improvement, her office also examines cases every three months and holds monthly meetings with CSCRM executives.
According to Austin, more sex offense cases are being tried by the DA’s office than in the past. For example, there have been eight jury trials in 2025 thus far, nine in 2024, and two in 2023. Three of those eight trials ended in acquittals, while five of them produced a guilty conviction. According to Austin, her staff has tried more complicated cases that depend on a single witness, such as ones involving alcohol-facilitated sexual assault or withdrawal of permission.
A number of presenters emphasized the continued federal obstacles to this endeavor. According to Austin, some of our most needy areas are actually impacted by some of the changes taking on at the federal level. She went on to say that some survivors’ willingness to disclose an assault, let alone pursue a case, is probably more influenced by their immigration status.
SAFE leaders noted the federal reforms as well. “Obviously, we’re keeping an eye on grant funding at the moment,” stated Paula Marks, Director of Forensic Nursing.
Marks discussed two additional challenges SAFE is now facing: language difficulties and the certification of their forensic nurses at external exam places (such as hospitals), together with Holly Bowles, Director of Victim Advocacy, and Allison Kolb, Vice President of Community Services.
SAFE has moved into a brand-new clinic with five exam rooms. Although this has increased the organization’s capacity, any staff members who speak Spanish on duty might already be serving another client when a request is made. Requests for advocates to accompany survivors to meetings or law enforcement interviews have occasionally gone unanswered due to a shortage of full-time Spanish-speaking staff. Though trauma-informed requirements for interpretation differ outside of medical contexts, SAFE does have an agreement with an outside interpreter service for medical assessments. To increase its language access skills, SAFE has been collaborating with Asian Family Support Services of Austin and other neighborhood partners.
SAFE directs survivors to partner organizations when they are unable to fulfill a request (for whatever reason).
We have lost people entirely in the past, Marks added. A few years ago, we had that difficulty, which we made a concerted effort to overcome. We wanted to make sure that we performed a warm handoff to another program that could see them, even if we couldn’t see them at that moment.
Whether SAFE can monitor whether individuals truly receive services following a handoff was a question posed by Commissioner Yasmine Smith. According to Marks, SAFE attempts to arrange transportation to other providers, but privacy regulations prevent them from verifying what occurs following a handoff. Smith requested that SAFE take into account ways that survivors could agree to data sharing following a transfer. According to Smith, the victim may find just one stage in the process—the transfer—to be too much.
Marks also outlined SAFE’s resources for survivors in need of assistance. These consist of medical care, advice on how to report an assault, and transportation to outside appointments. According to Marks, it’s critical that everyone understands that, as an adult in the state of Texas, you have the option to obtain care without the involvement of police enforcement.
In contrast to the standard of 10–15% in a medical context, SAFE has a high proportion of successful follow-up contact with survivors: 62%, according to Bowles.
Despite a previous delay in receiving some of this data from APD, commissioners appeared to be overall encouraged by the progress and collaboration being reported. Following the first presentation, Ramrez said, “That was worth the wait.”
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