Government and law

Crime

The city had 39 homicides in 2016, the most since 1997.^[159][160] FBI Statistics show that overall violent and property crimes dropped in Austin in 2015, but increased in suburban areas of the city.^[161]

City government

This section is incomplete. (October 2015)

See also: List of mayors of Austin, Texas

Austin City Hall

Austin is administered by an 11-member city council (10 council members elected by geographic district plus a mayor elected at large). The council is accompanied by a hired city manager under the manager-council system of municipal governance. Council and mayoral elections are non-partisan, with a runoff in case there is no majority winner. A referendum approved by voters on November 6, 2012 changed the council composition from six council members plus a mayor elected at large to the current "10+1" district system. November 2014 marked the first election under the new system.
Austin formerly operated its city hall at 128 West 8th Street.^[162] Antoine Predock and Cotera Kolar Negrete & Reed Architects designed a new city hall building, which was intended to reflect what The Dallas Morning News referred to as a "crazy-quilt vitality, that embraces everything from country music to environmental protests and high-tech swagger."^[163] The new city hall, built from recycled materials, has solar panels in its garage.^[164] The city hall, at 301 West Second Street, opened in November 2004.^[165] The current mayor of Austin is Steve Adler.
Law enforcement in Austin is provided by the Austin Police Department, except for state government buildings, which are patrolled by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The University of Texas Police operate from the University of Texas.
Fire protection within the city limits is provided by the Austin Fire Department, while the surrounding county is divided into twelve geographical areas known as Emergency Services Districts, which are covered by separate regional fire departments.^[166] Emergency Medical Services are provided for the whole county by "Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services".^[167][168]

State and federal representation

The 8-story U.S. Courthouse constructed at a cost of $123 million is located at Fourth, Fifth, San Antonio, and Nueces streets in Austin (opened December 2012).^[169]

The Texas Department of Transportation operates the Austin District Office in Austin.^[170]
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) operates the Austin I and Austin II district parole offices in Austin.^[171]
The United States Postal Service operates several post offices in Austin.

See also: Government of Texas and List of capitals in the United States

Politics

Presidential elections results

Year	Republican	Democratic
2016	27.4% 126,750	66.3% 306,475
2012	36.2% 140,152	60.1% 232,788
2008	34.3% 136,981	63.5% 254,017
2004	42.0% 147,885	56.0% 197,235
2000	46.9% 141,235	41.7% 125,526
1996	39.9% 98,454	52.3% 128,970
1992	31.9% 88,105	47.3% 130,546
1988	44.9% 105,915	54.1% 127,783
1984	56.8% 124,944	42.8% 94,124
1980	45.7% 73,151	46.9% 75,028
1976	46.7% 71,031	51.6% 78,585
1972	56.3% 70,561	43.2% 54,157
1968	41.6% 34,309	48.1% 39,667
1964	31.0% 19,838	68.9% 44,058
1960	44.9% 22,107	54.9% 27,022

Austin is known as an enclave of liberal politics in an otherwise conservative state—so much so, that the city is sometimes sarcastically called the "People's Republic of Austin" by residents of other parts of Texas, and conservatives in the Texas Legislature.^[172][173]
Since redistricting following the 2010 United States Census, Austin has been divided between six congressional districts at the federal level: Texas's 35th, Texas's 25th, Texas's 10th, Texas's 21st, Texas's 17th, and Texas's 31st. Texas's 35th congressional district is represented by Democrat Lloyd Doggett. The other five districts are represented by Republicans, of whom only one, Michael McCaul of the 10th district, lives in Austin.
As a result of the major party realignment that began in the 1970s, central Austin became a stronghold of the Democratic Party, while the suburbs tend to vote Republican. A controversial turning point in the political history of the Austin area was the 2003 Texas redistricting. Opponents characterized the resulting district layout as excessively partisan gerrymandering, and the plan was challenged in court by Democratic and minority activists; of note, the Supreme Court of the United States has never struck down a redistricting plan for being excessively partisan. The plan was subsequently upheld by a three-judge federal panel in late 2003, and on June 28, 2006, the matter was largely settled when the Supreme Court, in a 7–2 decision, upheld the entire congressional redistricting plan with the exception of a Hispanic-majority district in southwest Texas. This affected Austin's districting, as U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett's district (U.S. Congressional District 25) was found to be insufficiently compact to compensate for the reduced minority influence in the southwest district; it was redrawn so that it took in most of southeastern Travis County and several counties to its south and east.^[174]
Overall, the city is a blend of downtown liberalism and suburban conservatism but leans to the political left as a whole. The city last went to a Republican candidate in 2000 when former Texas Governor George W. Bush successfully ran for President. In 2004, the Democrats rebounded strongly as John Kerry enjoyed a 14.0% margin over Bush, who once again won Texas.^[175]
City residents have been supportive of alternative candidates; for example, Ralph Nader won 10.4% of the vote in Austin in 2000.
In 2003, the city adopted a resolution against the USA PATRIOT Act that reaffirmed constitutionally guaranteed rights. Of Austin's six state legislative districts, three are strongly Democratic and three are swing districts, two of which are held by Democrats and one of which is held by a Republican. However, two of its three congressional districts (the 10th and the 21st) are presently held by Republicans, with only the 25th held by a Democrat. This is largely due to the 2003 redistricting, which left downtown Austin without an exclusive congressional seat of its own. Travis County was also the only county in Texas to reject Texas Constitutional Amendment Proposition 2 that effectively outlawed gay marriage and status equal or similar to it and did so by a wide margin (40% for, 60% against).^{[176][177][178]}
Two of the candidates for president in the 2004 race called Austin home. Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party candidate, and David Cobb of the Green Party both had lived in Austin. During the run up to the election in November, a presidential debate was held at the University of Texas at Austin student union involving the two candidates. While the Commission on Presidential Debates only invites Democrats and Republicans to participate in televised debates, the debate at UT was open to all presidential candidates. Austin also hosted one of the last presidential debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during their heated race for the Democratic nomination in 2008.^[179]
In the 2016 presidential election, Travis County, which contains the majority of Austin, voted for Hillary Clinton (D) by a 38.9-point margin (66.3% to 27.4%).^[180]

Environmental movement

The distinguishing political movement of Austin politics has been that of the environmental movement, which spawned the parallel neighborhood movement, then the more recent conservationist movement (as typified by the Hill Country Conservancy),^[181] and eventually the current ongoing debate about "sense of place" and preserving the Austin quality of life. Much of the environmental movement has matured into a debate on issues related to saving and creating an Austin "sense of place."^[182] In 2012, Austin became just one of a few cities in Texas to ban the sale and use of plastic bags.