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Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.<\/p>\n
Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Republican, tweeted out late Sunday that he intends to sign a bill that would essentially prevent cities in the state to defund police departments.<\/p>\n
The governor retweeted a post from Kenneth Casaday, the president of the Austin Police Association, that was critical of the response time for a shooting call early Sunday. <\/p>\n
Casaday said the call came in at 5:35 a.m. and there were no units available in the city to respond for 12 minutes. He said the victim suffered a critical injury after being shot in the head. Police finally arrived at the scene at 5:51 a.m., he said.<\/p>\n
Abbott used the shooting to underscore the need for police funding and said, “This is what defunding the police looks like.”<\/p>\n
“Austin is incapable of timely responding to a victim shot in the head. Texas won\u2019t tolerate this,” he said.<\/p>\n
Austin police did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Fox News seeking information about the shooting that Casaday mentioned and if funding restraints played a role in the response time.<\/p>\n
The Austin American-Statesman reported that the City Council voted last year to reallocate up to $150 million from the police department. The paper reported that the city reduced the department\u2019s operational budget by about $21.5 million. The paper said the savings were made by delaying to police academies. <\/p>\n
The Texas House of Representatives has passed House Bill 1900, and a Texas Senate committee is debating the bill. <\/p>\n
The NBC affiliate reported that the bill calls for the state to take a portion of the sales tax for cities in violation and divert them to state coffers.<\/p>\n