Downtown Austin safety solutions discussed in Travis County DA race

AUSTIN (KXAN) – As early voting continues, the candidates for Travis County District Attorney are talking about public safety, particularly in downtown Austin.

Opportunity Austin and Downtown Austin Alliance hosted a conversation between Jeremy Sylestine, a Democrat challenging incumbent José Garza, and Daniel Betts, a defense attorney running on the Republican ticket.

Betts is running unopposed in the primary but will face off with the Democratic choice come November.

Garza, who took office in 2021 after unseating the incumbent, was invited to the event but was not able to attend.

“Public safety is our number one priority, and obviously the district attorney race is a race that is very important to our members, the businesses, and ultimately visitors to downtown,” said Dewitt Peart, DAA’s President and CEO.

He said the alliance does not endorse candidates but they frequently host these types of forums to educate its members and downtown stakeholders.

At the event, Sylestine and Betts were asked what they believe to be the most pressing public safety issue facing Travis County. Sylestine told the crowd he believes it is mental health.

"We're relying on our police officers and those structures to become mental health -- social workers -- more often than they should," he said. "It distracts them from doing the real job of investigating cases and making sure that we're safe, day to day, as we move throughout Austin and Travis County."

He explained further that he believes the criminal justice system has become a “catch-all” for people suffering and called on the county to partner with more non-governmental partners to address these issues.

However, Sylestine went on to say that he believes there needs to be a balance by aggressively prosecuting violent crime and, in turn, giving victims of those crimes a voice.

"We have found people who have come to us and said, 'This is what happened to me. When I took my case through the system, I felt disrespected, left out and betrayed.' And that's that's a real experience that doesn't have to happen," Sylestine said. “If we're being smart and [using] common sense about these prosecutions, we can both keep people safe and stand with survivors."

He called the district attorney spot the “the top law enforcement presence” in the county. Yet, he also noted that many of the cases that occur downtown -- such as criminal mischief or trespass cases -- ultimately come before the County Attorney, who handles misdemeanors. Sylestine said he would hope to have a good working relationship with that office, if elected, “so, we can understand who and why we should be concerned about” and “better flag those cases … for an alternative course of treatment.”

He also said he would "reevaluate" how and why cases are rejected, if elected.

"We have to recognize that the fact that charge was filed gives us the opportunity to intervene through something like the mental health court and rejecting a case outright just because doesn't do that," he said. He added that he hopes to use those situations "as a platform "to move people into the spaces that they need, to get the help that they deserve."

KXAN reached out to Garza for responses to several of the specific questions from Thursday's forum.

In a statement, Garza said he believes it is the responsibility of the office "to prevent crime as much as it is to react to it." He went on to say he believes real public safety is stability.

"It is access to good jobs, good schools to send our children, access to healthcare and mental health care," he said, in part. He said, "That’s why we are fixing our broken criminal justice system by addressing the root causes of crime."

Garza pointed to specific programs they've launched during his time in office, in partnership with APD, aimed at getting guns "off the street." He also noted his office has taken more sexual assault cases "than ever before" to prosecution and increased the number of those convictions.

Regarding non-violent offenders, especially in drug possession cases, he said his office has emphasized alternatives to jail and treatment to address addictions, often as a part of the sentencing request in the case.

"We continue to prosecute violent crimes, especially gun violence, to the fullest," Garza said.

Regarding mental health resources, Garza said, "We first need to acknowledge the harsh truth in Texas that mental health care is woefully underfunded, and sadly, it is our criminal justice system that is our largest provider of mental health care services. This lack of funding too often puts law enforcement in difficult situations, without the proper training."

He said that’s why his office is working with the Travis County Commissioner's court to develop an advanced mental health diversion center.

In response to a question about how his office deals with repeat offenders, he said, "This is the question that we’ve worked to instill into the DNA of everyone in the DA’s office, and I’m proud to say that Travis County has been a leader in enacting reforms to fix our broken criminal justice system."

He focused on the reforms the office has initiated in the juvenile justice system to keep kids out of jail and a pilot partnership with the carpenter’s union to give people accused of non-violent crimes access to union apprenticeship programs.

"Reducing recidivism and helping ensure past offenders have the tools, the skills, and the support to lead stable, fulfilling lives increases the safety of our entire community. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the safest thing to do," he said.

Betts said he believed the most pressing public safety issues were methamphetamines and fentanyl, as well as mental health issues. He agreed with the need for resources to address the root causes of those issues. He also suggested working more closely with defense attorneys who have “unique access” to their clients, to ensure they are connected to the appropriate resources when mental health issues are identified.

However, regarding violent crimes and repeat offenders, Betts emphasized the need for consequences.

“I think right now we're writing the story for 20 years from now: what this district attorney does in terms of properly identifying compassion where it's necessary and to properly identify punishment, where it's necessary so that we can protect victims,” Betts said.

Betts said that he believes prison sentences need to be "one of the tools that we have in our repertoire," as well as capital punishment.

"There are some crimes that are just so fundamentally disruptive to our community that it demands that that response be part of the conversation," he said.

A crowd member asked Betts about whether he had encouraged Republican voters to vote for Sylestine in the primary.

In response, Betts said, "I think that it is so important for this community that we have a change in that office, and it's important enough to set aside politics ... And then we have a political campaign for a year that was not a zero-sum game. That will be so refreshing."

Early voting for the March primary runs through Friday, March 1, ahead of the election on Tuesday, March 5.