A South Austin man is helping organize nighttime volunteer patrols after a stretch of thefts and break-ins near his home off South 1st Street left neighbors feeling like they couldn’t count on a quick police response. Rick Hoff says thieves got into his motorcycle and stole a neighbor’s electric lawnmower, part of a string of six other thefts or car break-ins within a 1,500-foot radius of his house over roughly two and a half weeks in July.
Hoff told KXAN Austin that most of his neighbors have lived there for decades and many are senior citizens, which is part of why he and a neighbor decided to act rather than wait. The two went door-to-door warning others about the crime spree and reported the thefts in person at an Austin Police Department substation, where Hoff says he was impressed by the two officers who assisted them. According to the station’s report, one woman who called in the thefts was told an officer could take weeks to address the reported crime spree, and she was bounced between 911 and 311 before eventually being instructed to file an online report.
Austin Police Department confirmed it received a report about the stolen electric lawnmower, but the lawnmower case has since been suspended due to a lack of leads, suspects, evidence, surveillance footage or a serial number, per the same account. APD recommended that Hoff and his neighbor form a neighborhood watch, and the pair now plan to organize volunteers for nighttime drives around the neighborhood.
Why Police Response Has Lagged
The frustration in Hoff’s neighborhood tracks with a broader staffing crunch inside Austin’s police department. APD is around 300 officers short in 2026, and as recently as early 2025 the department had only 469 officers assigned to regular patrol shifts out of an authorized patrol strength of 769, according to KVUE. Overall sworn vacancies stood at 316 out of 1,816 authorized roles during that same period…