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The man who was shot by an ICE agent this month in North Austin has been charged with assaulting, resisting, interfering and impeding law enforcement. Wilber Garces Perez is set to appear in an Austin court today.
Travis County Commissioners approved a more than $2 billion budget for the next fiscal year — directing more money toward affordable housing, mental healthcare and disaster preparedness.
It may feel like artificial intelligence is popping up everywhere. Now, police departments are testing AI tools that can turn body camera footage into police reports in minutes.
Speaking of AI, we’ll hear from some local teenagers about the way the technology and data centers are impacting their communities.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] The man who was shot by an ICE agent this month in North Austin has been charged with assaulting, resisting, interfering, and impeding law enforcement. He’s set to appear in an Austin court today, we’ve got the latest. And Travis County Commissioners approved a more than $2 billion budget for the next fiscal year, directing more money toward affordable housing, mental health care, and disaster preparedness. Plus, artificial intelligence feels like it’s, well, everywhere. Now police departments are testing AI tools that can turn body camera footage into police reports in minutes. We’ve got more from Hayes County that’s coming up on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:41] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:46] And speaking of AI, we’re gonna hear from some local teenagers about the way the technology and data centers are impacting the communities that they live in. We’ve got those stories and more. That’s up next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kihannel. It is Wednesday, September 30th, the last day of the month. Thank you for making us part of your day. Wilbur Garcespedes, the delivery driver shot by an immigration enforcement agent in North Austin this month, is appearing today in federal court in Austin. He is charged with assaulting a federal officer, among other charges, as KUT’s Mo’s Bouchelle reports.
Mose Buchele [00:01:35] A criminal complaint filed by ICE says immigration officers identified themselves during a traffic stop before Garces Perez fled in his car, hitting one of them with a side-view mirror. That led to a chase and ended with one agent forcing a stop, then shooting Garces Pérez, saying he feared he’d be struck by the car. Garces Peres’ immigration attorney Kate Lincoln Goldfinch says she was not informed the criminal charges were filed until after he missed an appointment with her Tuesday morning.
Kate Lincoln Goldfinch [00:02:04] The government is leaking out bits and pieces of information, transferring my client around while he has a bullet in his body and is in grave danger.
Mose Buchele [00:02:17] The complaint says one of the two agents was wearing a body camera for the initial stop. It says that agent turned the camera off before joining his partner after the shooting.
Kate Lincoln Goldfinch [00:02:26] And we still don’t have that body cam footage and we don’t know what happened in the incident.
Mose Buchele [00:02:32] ICE referred questions about the criminal charges and body cam footage to the Department of Justice. If found guilty of assaulting, resisting, interfering, and impeding a federal officer, Garces Perez could face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. The criminal charge came one day ahead of a federal court hearing in San Antonio for a lawsuit filed on his behalf aimed at blocking his deportation. That is now canceled. Garces Perez is expected instead to be in federal court in Austin. Hearing criminal charges against him.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:07] And that hearing is currently taking place. You can check back here later today on all things considered for the latest or follow us online at kut.org and on the KUT app. The Travis County Commissioner’s Court voted this week on a budget of more than $2 billion that will put funds toward mental health care, disaster preparedness, and a whole lot more. For more about that, we are speaking with Katie McAfee. She is KUT’s Travis County reporter. Katie, thanks for stopping by for a chat.
Katy McAfee [00:03:45] Hi Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:46] Okay, the county’s revenue is mostly collected through property taxes, and even though this year’s budget went up, homeowners could be paying less. Why is that the case?
Katy McAfee [00:03:55] There’s a lot of math involved in that answer, but the simple answer is that property values went down slightly this year in Travis County. So one benchmark is for people who own a home valued around $373,000. They would pay $1,439 in property taxes to the county this year, which is about $30 less than last year.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:17] Those tax dollars are used on a variety of things that one might expect. Tell us a little bit about them.
Katy McAfee [00:04:21] Yeah, so the county’s biggest expense is the jail. More than 12 percent is spent on corrections and more than 15 percent is spend on the justice system every year. That’s a big thing they have to consider. And then there are other sort of mandatory things that the county funds. They fund the cost of putting on elections, parks, roads, staff salaries, things like that.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:42] When I was reading your latest story, you mentioned that there were a couple programs that might not be expected from the listener or the reader. Tell us more about those. What are they?
Katy McAfee [00:04:52] Yeah, so some loyal KUT listeners might expect this if they’ve been following along on this project. But one thing the county is funding this year is $15 million for its mental health diversion center. This is a program the county has been activating in a pilot phase for about two years, and it redirects people who are accused of low-level crimes to a facility with mental health resources instead of the jail. Um, plus They are also getting more money for a counsel at first appearance program. They are putting money towards hiring more lawyers so people get representation before their first appearance in front of a judge.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:32] Okay, well following last summer’s deadly flooding that killed nine people in Travis County, how are local officials adjusting and preparing for the future?
Katy McAfee [00:05:39] Yeah, this is another big change. The county is boosting its emergency reserve from $18 million to $35 million. That’s mostly because of what happened last year in July. The flood was really dangerous and it was also really expensive for the county to respond to. They spent about $30 million getting debris removal and also just emergency response right after it happened. And talking to Travis County Judge Andy Brown on the phone, he said, the county is expecting more stuff like this, unfortunately, to happen in the county. The county is susceptible to floods, but they’re also really susceptible to wildfires. According to a report that came out last year, Austin is ranked fifth in the nation in homes at risk of being destroyed by wildfire. And the county wants to be more prepared financially if and when that happens again.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:27] Well, there are lots of different programs, lots of things receiving some funding. We have the entire budget over at kut.org. One thing that caught my eye, though, is that the county is putting more money toward another study, looking at the feasibility of a passenger rail line between Austin and San Antonio. We’ve had lots of studies like this before. What makes this one different?
Katy McAfee [00:06:46] Yeah, so the study the county funded last year that you mentioned looked into the feasibility of building a rail line to San Antonio. Those results came out a few weeks ago and the amazing Nathan Bernier reported about those and that study basically found it would either cost 13.1 billion dollars or it would require the county to strike a deal with Union Pacific, which has previously not been interested in expanding its passenger rail service. This study will look into the economic benefit of building a rail, and it will also look at the economic detriment to the county if something like this doesn’t happen.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:23] All right, we have been speaking with Katie McAfee. She is KUT’s Travis County reporter. We’re gonna have a link to her reporting and all 511 pages of that proposed budget in today’s show notes. Katie, great to talk with you.
Katy McAfee [00:07:35] Thank you, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:46] All right, it can feel like artificial intelligence is just about everywhere these days. Some tasks that can take a human hours can now be done in just seconds by software, but results can be uneven, and reactions to the results are all over the place. KUT’s Lee Walden reports on one kind of artificial intelligence software being tested by police departments around the country.
Leigh Walden [00:08:11] There’s a whole bunch of AI tools that companies are trying to sell to police. There’s AI-equipped license plate readers, there’s translation software, transcription software, but recently there’s a new AI tool on the market.
News [00:08:26] The Hays County Sheriff’s Office could soon be implementing AI technology into its body cameras.
Leigh Walden [00:08:32] This one, like a lot of AI products, is aimed at saving police time.
News [00:08:37] An AI tool called Axon Draft One, technology that helps officers generate police reports in minutes.
Leigh Walden [00:08:44] The name Axon might sound familiar. They have a ton of police contracts in and around Austin. The company has expanded a lot in recent years. They sell things like tasers and body cameras, but they also sell software for doing things like organizing and managing evidence.
Rick Smith [00:09:02] An enormous amount of the resources that are invested in policing are actually consumed with mundane, bureaucratic, inefficient tasks.
Leigh Walden [00:09:10] This is Axon’s CEO, Rick Smith. He explained how this new tech works in this promotional video.
Rick Smith [00:09:17] Draft One is an AI tool that takes the audio from a body camera, we turn that into a transcript, and then from that transcript, we reformat that information into the form of a police report narrative.
Leigh Walden [00:09:32] Writing reports is not necessarily the fun part of policing. It’s bureaucratic and technical. There’s a lot of jargon involved. With draft one, officers can pass that work off to a computer.
Lindsay Henry [00:09:45] It takes us into our report writer kind of tab here. It’s going to take my video, which says it’s available.
Leigh Walden [00:09:51] That’s Hayes County Sheriff’s Deputy, Lindsay Henry. She’s one of the officers that was trying out draft one recently.
Lindsay Henry [00:09:58] Something. It wants you to just kind of go through and see what’s the most.
Leigh Walden [00:10:01] The program asked some more questions, like what kind of incident were they responding to? Was an arrest made? What kind of infraction was it?
Lindsay Henry [00:10:08] No charge, infraction, misdemeanor, or felony, so.
Leigh Walden [00:10:11] Deputy Henry fills out the form, which takes about a minute, and generates the report.
Lindsay Henry [00:10:15] And then it’s asking how long I’d like the draft to be. So you can do short, standard, or more detailed. I’m a more detailed person.
Leigh Walden [00:10:22] A multiple page police report is filled out in front of her. She’s not done yet. Officers can’t just leave the draft page without reading through the report, filling in blanks and removing unnecessary details. Sometimes the program makes mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are because it misinterprets something in the video. Other times those mistakes…are intentional. They’re there to make sure that officers are paying attention. Deputy Jonathan Garcia is another one of the officers who was trying the program out.
Jonathan Garcia [00:10:53] You’ll get a sentence in there after the details of the incident that says the victim gained superpowers and was then trying to find a suspicious wizard or something like that.
Leigh Walden [00:11:04] Obviously, officers need to delete the superpowers and wizards from their reports. Both Garcia and Henry say Draft 1 has sped this up.
Lindsay Henry [00:11:12] I would just say that it created the ability to write reports quicker and get back on the streets.
Leigh Walden [00:11:18] But some folks argue that having things take longer can be part of the point.
Greg Cox [00:11:23] The offense report serves a lot of purposes.
Leigh Walden [00:11:25] This is Greg Cox, he’s the Hayes County First Assistant District Attorney.
Greg Cox [00:11:30] It allows the prosecutor to read it and understand what happened and make charging decisions, make decisions about what a plea offer should look like. And if the case is gonna go to trial, plan for what the trial is gonna look like
Leigh Walden [00:11:44] And for defense attorneys, police reports are critical for recommending whether a defendant should plead guilty. Cox is worried that having an AI write the first draft of a police report means that officers won’t retain details as well. So when it comes time for a trial, officers will look less credible as witnesses.
Greg Cox [00:12:02] I would much rather have them write a detailed report themselves based on what they observed.
Leigh Walden [00:12:08] He’s not the only one who thinks this might not be the best use of AI. Jay Stanley is a senior policy analyst for the ACLU.
Jay Stanley [00:12:16] Humans will in an incident will see and remember things that a body camera does not catch
Leigh Walden [00:12:23] Again, Draft1 is creating the initial version of the report based only on the transcription of the body camera footage.
Jay Stanley [00:12:30] Body camera will catch things that the human does not see or hear or notice. Those are two separate sets of evidence. And you need to preserve both of them to ensure fairness to defendants.
Leigh Walden [00:12:43] Humans catch things like the smell of alcohol on someone’s breath, where their eyes might be focusing, and subtle mannerisms. Stanley says that having the most detail possible from an incident serves everyone involved.
Jay Stanley [00:12:56] Police support serves a constant reminder that officers do need to justify their use of the very powerful potential authorities that the public gives them.
Leigh Walden [00:13:08] In July, the Hays County Sheriff’s Free Trial of Draft 1 ended. If they wanted to keep using it, they would need to pay for it, and the county would need to put it in their budget. But when the sheriff came to ask for the money, he got an earful from residents who were against it.
Resident [00:13:24] Why are people paying property taxes in Hayes County only to have the county vote to send the money to an AI company?
Resident [00:13:30] I’m here today to express my strongest possible objection to the Court’s willingness to embrace this thing called artificial intelligence.
Leigh Walden [00:13:37] At a time when there is so much skepticism about AI, new AI software for police was a hard sell. So when it came up for a vote by the commissioners, they voted no. But several other police departments in the Austin area have tried out tools like Draft One. For instance, the Kyle Police Department has a contract for some of Axon’s AI tools, but isn’t using draft one. At the request of the district’s attorney’s office. I’m Lee Walden in San Marcos.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:15] The Zilker Botanical Garden is under full city management as of today. The garden was previously run by the Zilkert Botanica Garden Conservancy, a non-profit dedicated to the garden’s operations. The organization provided programming, including educational initiatives and community activities and operated the gift shop and admissions. In a statement that has since been removed from the garden social media pages and website, the non-profit did not say why the partnership ended, but did add, quote, They were proud of the work that had been able to contribute. And we’re grateful to everyone who made it possible,” end quote. The city has not yet commented on the change, we have reached out for more information. This is Austin Signal, we’ll be back after a short break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. A while back here at the KUT studios, we had a group of students tour the studio and they left us with a question along the lines of, why should kids care about the news? Well, we thought about it for a bit and we decided to ask a class at Eastside Early College High School about what they think, particularly about something that has been a hot topic, not only locally, but all over the country and on today’s show as well. That would be artificial intelligence and data centers. For our new segment, Future Present. We are speaking with two high school seniors and land justice community school fellows, Genesis Molinares and Genesis Pedraza. Genesis, Genesis, welcome to the show.
Genesis Pedraza [00:15:40] Hello, thank you so much for having us.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:43] So let’s just start really simple. Data centers is something that we have been talking about a lot on the news. Let me start with you, Genesis. When you hear data centers, what do you think of? What comes to your mind?
Genesis Pedraza [00:15:53] To be honest, what comes to my mind is obviously AI and how data centers are usually in working-class communities and how they usually affect a lot of people of color, which is kind of sad because obviously we’re people of colors so it affects us too, but as well as AI comes to the mind as our peers use AI, the news sometimes use AI. So kind of like everywhere we see AI, so yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:21] Well, I wanted to ask you a little bit of questions about AI, but I’ll follow up on this in a second. Hennessy, what comes to your mind?
Hennesys Molinares [00:16:26] Um, yeah, kind of to add, like, to add what Genesis is saying, AI, generative AI, it’s very much normalized in our society, and as of today, I also find it really, like honestly devastating how a lot of our peers, friends, and family use AI as a means of finding a shortcut to do things when it’s really not the case, you know. Yes, you have, like a few types away from getting whatever you want, but the cause effect just isn’t really worth it, especially in my opinion. We lose a lot of resources and we lose community and I think that’s something that we need to touch up more upon
Jerry Quijano [00:17:02] Okay, well, the point of this segment was to ask kids, ask young people what they’re thinking of, but I want to ask you about the adults in your life. What are you hearing them say about data centers?
Hennesys Molinares [00:17:14] Um, so for context, I come from a low income immigrant household and the sad news is we unfortunately don’t really talk about it as much as I would personally like to. And the truth is it’s because we simply can’t afford to do so. A lot of people who are not just in my household, but in my community as a whole, um, tend to work at least 10, 12 hours a day plus, um, and that’s like every when even though we are aware of the social injustices, especially when it comes to, you know, like gentrification, housing displacement, and now we have a new thread, generative AI, and what it does and what is takes from us, we know what it is, we know it does, and many of us see it as a tool, but we don’t see it, as again, like it’s a negative thing and we shouldn’t use it, but again, like we’re just so busy, so preoccupied with. Having that paycheck come in, you know, it’s like, we simply don’t have the time or the luxury to afford to think about it.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:13] What about you, Genesis?
Genesis Pedraza [00:18:14] For me, because I do community organizing work, I usually hear community organizers talk about how there’s more data centers expanding, that there’s more coming into working class communities. And it’s really disappointing because I’ve been pushed out of East Austin, so I’m currently in the South area. So seeing more data center in that area kind of hurts because obviously I’ve been pushed down. Why is there more things for us to get more push furthered out? Yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:44] Yeah, kind of like the loss of community that you were talking about. That you were talking about. What about your peers? What do y’all hear from people that you go to school with and people that you spend time with in the community, people your age?
Hennesys Molinares [00:18:53] Yeah. So a lot of people who are in our high school, um, tend to use AI. Um, and the biggest example is that Eastside has our Hoko week this week. Um, And a lot, a lot students and not just students, but both teachers and students have used AI to make posters, um create events, um just like reach out, but using it, using AI to do so. And again, like it’s a disappointing thing because. It’s, yes, you have that AI to help you, but you also have 10 times more students who are more than willing to help, who have that creative mind to help you with whatever you have going on. If you wanted to make a campaign or a poster for Hoku Week, why not ask any other student, you know? Why did it have to be, you now, that Chachi BTU or that robot, you know, any of those websites that you have to use AI? I feel like it takes away the creative minds that we have in our own school and again like in a sense in our community. So while I say that it’s easy, it takes it away from having that relatability or having that community that we so desperately need in this day and age especially because the more that we use AI, the less we are far apart from asking and helping each other and I feel it shouldn’t be like that. That shouldn’t the case.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:18] Since you say you don’t really like your peers using AI, do you ever talk to them about not using AI?
Hennesys Molinares [00:20:24] Mm. Unfortunately, I know I should definitely be if I see it like stop in but it also feels like because it’s such a normal thing To do so I tend to like look at what the other way and I can like it’s I wish I could do more on my part But again, it’s like if I don’t use it and I like for me, I don’t have that Like let’s say for example, there’s a test coming up or something I don’t know something that I wish to make I don’s use AI Because I don have that mentality of let’s use the shortcut to help me it’s how can I do it myself, you know, even if I have to take the long way, at least I learn a new skill, I get a new experience and overall at the end I’ll have fun, you know, and I simply wish to have like other students have that same mentality as me, but I simply know that’s just not the case.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:10] What about you, Genesis? Do you ever do you find it also difficult to have those conversations?
Genesis Pedraza [00:21:15] Yes, I find it really difficult because there are some classes, I mostly hear peers standing up about like, hey, don’t use AI, but then on the other half, some people don’t even care about it, which kinda is really disappointing because they don’t really care. They just like, either use it and then just shrug it off like nothing has happened, but I don’t think they make the connection to like, oh, AI, data centers, less resources, so it kinda sucks that they don’t really get the aspect of like… Oh if I use this, how is it gonna affect me? You know what I mean? Like they just don’t simply care. That’s what I think, to be honest.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:49] Yeah, when it comes to data centers, a lot of the talk tends to be about the opportunities that it could possibly bring. You’re talking a little bit about the resources that have already been lost in some of these communities. What is your take on these pros and cons? I think it’s maybe a little easier when you’re not from a community that a data center is going into to promote the good things that could come from it. What is your take on these pros and cons?
Hennesys Molinares [00:22:13] Um, when people say that we, we may have more jobs or careers, it doesn’t like for every career or for every job that is has to do with tech, I feel like much more is like many more careers or jobs are taken away just for this one, you know, opportunity, just for one job role. And I feel that’s not worth it because if you can be experienced and you know But you shouldn’t take away, you know, thousands if not more like people who have other career choices or other dreams that they aspire to have that doesn’t have to relate to tech. So I feel like, honestly, it’s kind of bogus when people say, you get more opportunities when it comes to AI, when it come to tech, like using all these things that is gonna innovate the future. I simply don’t believe it because I’m seeing it and I’m living in this time period where that’s not the case. Many more people, especially in the creative aspects of creative roles and creative jobs. They lose their careers, they lose their jobs that they’ve worked so hard for most of their lives because of AI.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:18] Okay, we have been speaking with high school seniors, Genesis Molinares and Genesis Pedraza for our present and future segment, where we speak with Austin’s youth about how these larger newsmaking topics are affecting them and their peers. Genesis, Genesis, thank you for your time today.
Hennesys Molinares [00:23:32] Thank you so much.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:34] And thank you out there for spending the afternoon with us. This is Austin Signal. That’s it for us today. But we have more at kut.org slash signal and in the podcast show notes. The Austin Signal team is Reina Sevilla, Alexandra Hart, Kristen Cabrera, and I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Back at the same time tomorrow. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
