 "Photo: Britt Hackemack")
Local police officials, Rep. Lamar Smith and Mayor Will Wynn hashed out ideas on the use of alternative energy sources and resource conservation in law enforcement programs Tuesday.
Wynn said the city's fleet management program has reviewed the use of city vehicles, including patrol cars and motorcycles, to avoid wasting resources. He said the program is designed to fight the growing problem of fuel costs in the city, which have increased by 85 percent since 2005.
"The cost of fuel is a big, big challenge for the city of Austin," Wynn said, adding that the city uses 5 million gallons of fuel each year and is consistently over budget on fuel expenditures.
The city will soon request an additional 100 alternative-fuel vehicles to add to the police department's fleet, half of which are hybrid-electric or alternative-fuel vehicles, he said.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department is considering programs that would cut down on fuel usage, including purchasing flex-fuel vehicles in the future and having officers share vehicles.
"What we are doing is really being smart about how we use our resources," Acevedo said. "Every dollar that we're using for fuel costs is a dollar that we don't have for other costs and other challenges that we have."
Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton said his patrol officers will spend more time walking their beats and cut down on letting their cars idle. With the rising cost of food and pharmaceuticals for Travis County inmates, it is important to cut down on fuel usage, he said.
"We are going to address the things we control," Hamilton said. He added that the changes will not affect the level of service the agency provides.
Smith said the U.S. should not limit what resources are used and where to find them - including oil reserves in Alaska, the western United States and the Gulf Coast - and should explore alternative forms of energy.
"We need to go forward, in my judgement, on all fronts," Smith said.
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