The Mayor of Austin, Kirk Watson, is in a showdown with Governor Abbott and the Department of Public Safety (DPS). Watson, a Democrat, announced last week that he was suspending the partnership between Austin Police Department and DPS.

The slogan for Austinites for years was “Keep Austin Weird” but now the far-left progressives who govern the city are determined to make Austin a dangerous city, too. In March, a partnership was formed between APD and DPS to deal with APD staffing shortages. Austin is one of many Democrat-led cities across the country that defunded its police department to appease anti-police activists. As happens when defunding is implemented, the police department was woefully understaffed and crime rates rose. As of the end of June, there were nearly 325 vacancies in APD.

The partnership with DPS was paused in mid-May because Governor Abbott reassigned some troopers to the border. The pause ended on July 2 and the partnership picked up again. There has been criticism by some in Austin that the partnership was put into place without input from City Council members. Those would be the same City Council members who defunded the police department in the first place. Mayor Watson struck a deal with Governor Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

APD said that DPS helped lower violent crime levels, as well as reduced traffic fatalities, shortened response times, and there were more seizures of drugs. All of that, in a normal world, would be good results of such a partnership, right? Well, Austin isn’t a part of a normal world and some question the data provided by APD. So, the mayor announced the suspension of the partnership after the Austin Public Safety Commission passed a nonbinding recommendation that City Council members reevaluate the partnership. They want certain guidelines to be established and more community engagement. If those recommendations are not done, it recommended the partnership be discontinued.

One reason for the current tension between DPS and APD is due to a case where state troopers allegedly pulled their guns on a 10-year-old boy and his father after the boy got out of a car that was being pulled over in front of his house. He allegedly needed to use the bathroom. The mayor said that this incident caused him and interim City Manager Jesus Garza to suspend the partnership.

However, there is a catch to this story. DPS showed the body camera footage of the traffic stop to local media and it shows the troopers did not point their guns at the 10-year-old boy. When he got out of the car, troopers approached the vehicle with their weapons drawn but pointed down at the ground. They did point their guns at the boy’s father, Carlos Meza.

That sure sounds like standard operating procedure to me. The boy was no doubt freaked out about the whole situation, that would be normal. But activists who want to fault DPS seem to be making a case of police overreach where there is none, as verified by camera footage.

Austin Justice Coalition Executive Director Chas Moore said he hopes this recent suspension means that the DPS will be gone for good and that in the future the mayor will involve the community before making a decision such as this.

The coalition had “predicted both the extreme racially disparate impacts and unaccountable violence that would result from it, and now demands that the City clarify that DPS troopers will never again be deployed to our city’s streets,” Moore said in a news release.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said the deployment of DPS troopers never felt like a “partnership” because there was no inclusion of feedback from the council or community members when it was announced in March. She added that all citizens should feel safe and that many did not when the troopers were patrolling the streets.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes spoke up with rhetoric befitting the “reimagine” police movement, while a conservative voice spoke up for the partnership.

“I believe that communities are safe when they have the resources needed to thrive,” Fuentes said. “We’ve had areas in our city that have been longtime under-invested in, that do not have adequate health care services, that do not have stable housing, that do not have access to education, all of the key components that allow and that provide for safer communities.”

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly said in a written statement that the decision to stop the partnership was a “disheartening setback” and that the DPS “undeniably contributed to combating crime.”

Kelly said she understands the need to evaluate the partnership and that she believes transparency is vital to establish trust between law enforcement and the community.

“I strongly encourage (the DPS and Austin Police Department) to engage in open dialogue, explore options for future partnerships, and work towards a cohesive and effective approach to addressing crime in Austin,” Kelly said.

Governor Abbott said no dice to the suspension of the partnership. He sent more DPS troopers.

I’ve deployed 30 additional Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to protect and serve the city of Austin.

This brings the total to 130.

We will do all we can to keep the streets of Austin safe.

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) July 13, 2023

The City of Austin may not want police, but the residents deserve it & I will provide it.

Crime has gone down in areas patrolled by the Texas Dept. of Public Safety.

We will continue deploying state police to keep communities safe.https://t.co/RX4lBYv9e6 #FoxNews

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) July 15, 2023

Mayor Watson knows that the partnership is working and Austin benefits from it. Just two days before he suspended the partnership, he was praising it. He noted that crime and response times had gone down as a result. However, two days later, he said the partnership doesn’t adhere to “Austin’s values.”

It’s politics. Watson is taking the word of a 10-year-old over that of DPS troopers.

“This has gone off the rails,” Austin Police Retired Officers Association President Dennis Farris told Fox News Digital. “I think he flipped out without knowing the facts and got some bad advice from his advisers.”

“He blew this entire thing up over the word of a third-grader” Farris said.

Violent crime was reportedly down 28% in Austin since the start of the partnership between APD and DPS, and 911 response times dropped by 1 minute and 15 seconds.

“He’s trying to pander to the left wing of his base because he knows he’s going to get challenged here in the next mayoral debate,” Austin Police Officer Justin Berry told Fox News Digital about Watson’s actions. “He’s playing politics with everyone’s safety.”

Berry added that he believes Watson likely wants to tell police critics in Austin to go “sit at the kids table” but is “in over his head” and doesn’t realize how far Democrats have moved to the left.

“The Austin Democrat Party, they’re not Democrats, they’re Marxists,” Berry said. “It’s not the same party as when he was mayor back in the 90s.”

Watson may be looking toward his re-election with this move and that makes his behavior all the worse. He is a seasoned politician, a former mayor and state senator before his current position as Mayor of Austin. He won in a run-off race in 2022 by 886 votes.