It’s that time again. The Great Texas Warrant Roundup will begin on March 6 and will run to March 13. Representatives from the more than 250 law enforcement agencies and courts from around Texas will be combining forces to gather those of you that have outstanding warrants from traffic and parking tickets as well as city ordinance and penal code violations to higher charge warrants.
Ordinance would ban panhandling at all times in a greater area of town
The Downtown Austin Alliance (DAA), along with several residential groups and downtown churches are proposing an extension of the existing ban on night time panhandling. Austin’s current ordinance that regulates panhandling, the Austin City Solicitation Ordinance 9-4-13 originally adopted in 1992, allows non-aggressive panhandling, but includes restrictions on the time, place and manner in which solicitation may legally occur.
ACC has announced that the closure of the Pinnacle campus has been extended through Wednesday, Oct. 21. The college plans to re-open the campus on Thursday, Oct. 22.
ACC phlebotomy certificates for cops a possibility
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo backs Senate Bill 261, sponsored by Senator Bob Deuell, which amends laws to allow drawing blood from DWI suspects who refuse a breath test. As of March 31 the bill is in the senate Criminal Justice Subcommittee and has not yet reached the House.
Former ACC student Rita Pena was stabbed in 2006 by ACC student Reginald Cooper, whom she did not know. She was trying to get in her car, parked at a meter just off ACC Rio Grande Campus. She was leaving her ACC math class. ACC Officer Joanna Weaver found Pena on the ground while patrolling near the campus.
Reports of crimes that occur on campus are easier to find than ever before. The campus police department is remodeling its website to include updated crime logs. The newly updated and renamed section of the campus police website, the Clery link, formerly named Reports and Statistics, provides more transparent and obtainable information about criminal activity and crime statistics reported annually and by incident.
An Internet petition started by former ACC student Rita Pena, 24, is demanding the college admit liability for life-threatening injuries sustained in an attack near Rio Grande Campus that left her with only partial use of her left hand. Pena was found by ACC police lying near West Avenue and 12th Street after being stabbed multiple times after walking to her car from her evening math class on Oct.
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Training program suffers from lack of oversight, students say
The Gary Job Corps Center, a sprawling former Army base in San Marcos and the first of Texas State University graduate Lyndon Johnson's Job Corps facilities, has been providing work force training for youth since the program's inception in 1964. However, current ACC students at the Gary facility have directed criticism at the program, adding to years of concerns about Job Corps.
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The body of an ACC student found dead inside a parked car outside Northridge Campus showed no signs of trauma or foul play, according to reports from Austin police and school officials. John Kevin Stewart-Smith, 18, was discovered shortly before 6 p.m. on March 28.
The assailant who allegedly assaulted and repeatedly stabbed 24-year-old Austin Community College student Rita Pena near ACC's Rio Grande campus on Oct. 25 was described by acquaintances as a quiet loner who was prone to aggressive and hostile behavior, especially towards women.
Former campus police officer Orval Roger Miller was arrested Sept. 19 on two counts of child pornography possession charges. Miller, 46, was being held in the Bastrop County Jail on $500,000 bond, and faces up to 10 years in state prison and a $10,000 fine on each count.
Since 2002, Austin Community College has been required by federal law to provide a list of all convicted, registered sex offenders attending, working or volunteering on campus. The Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, passed in 2000, amended a series of laws requiring states to track sex offenders, as well as requiring schools to disclose data on crimes committed on campus.
It's called double dipping - taking pay for two shifts at once, or working a private security job while the police officer should be working on campus. It's not the social mistake of reaching for another dip after taking a bite. Robert Sanchez, a former Austin Community College Police Department lieutenant, was convicted March 10 of a third-degree felony theft of service for working off-campus jobs while on the clock.
Rio Grande Campus Patrol Officer Joanna Weaver was given the 2006 ACCPD Life Saving Award due to her involvement in the recovery of stabbing victim and ACC student, Rita Pena, on the evening of Oct. 25, 2006. Weaver said that she arrived on the scene before the paramedics and the Austin Police Department because she saw Pena while patrolling.
As the nation heals from the massacre on the Virginia Tech campus, schools around the nation, including Austin Community College, are taking closer look into their own security procedures. Cho Seung-Hui, an English major at Virginia Tech, armed with two semiautomatic pistols, killed 32 people, including himself and injured 29 others.
Almost two months after stabbing, doubts still linger
In light of the Oct. 25 stabbing of student Rita Pena near Austin Community College's Rio Grande campus at the corner of 10th and Rio Grande Streets, on- campus safety is an issue on the minds of ACC students and staff alike. Part of the concern is due to limited access to parking at ACC's Rio Grande campus.
According to crime statistics published by Austin Community College, crime is on the decline at all campuses. Conrad Williams, Patrol Officer and Victim Services Officer at the Eastview campus, has been working at ACC for just over a year. Williams said he made his first campus arrest last week for public intoxication.
One of the outstanding characteristics of the ACC Northridge Campus is not only the 8600 students in attendance there, but also the presence of Sergeant Donald E. Seamster of the Campus Police. Seamster is head of security at the campus and has worked with ACC for 10 years.
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