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Hutto police report staffing gaps, drop in vehicle burglaries and SWAT-assisted critical incident
Summary
Chief Jeff Yarbrough told the council the department is authorized for 54 officers with four vacancies, five officers on FMLA, and that vehicle burglaries fell from 20 to five over Dec'Jan; he described a recent SWAT-assisted critical-incident response using an interior drone and commended victim services.
Chief Jeff Yarbrough delivered the Hutto Police Department's quarterly update, reporting that the department is authorized for 54 sworn officers and currently has four vacancies as well as five officers on FMLA. "We currently have 4 vacancies," Yarbrough said; the department has two officers in field training and two in background investigations as hires progress.
Yarbrough highlighted a drop in vehicle burglaries: "If you look at the previous year... we had 20 vehicle burglaries for those two months from December 1 to January 31. The same time this year, we're down to 5." He also described a recent critical-incident response where Hutto police worked with the Williamson County Sheriff's SWAT team, deployed an interior drone to contact an armed suspect and safely take the individual into custody, and conducted a house sweep. Council members asked whether staff could provide traffic exposure metrics to contextualize a rise in reported accidents; Chief Yarbrough said he would check if vehicle-hours estimates are available.
Council praised the department's performance in a prior work session and for public satisfaction metrics presented to council; members thanked officers and staff for their work during a period of growth. No formal action was taken.
