The DMI program in Austin began in 2012 and is a partnership between the affected neighborhoods, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, and the Austin Police Department.
A neighborhood in East Austin notorious for crime, prostitution and drug-dealing, is looking a lot different these days, partly due to APD's Drug Market Intervention launched 2 years ago.
Neighbors, police, and prosecutors applaud the ‘Drug Market Intervention’ at 12th and Chicon.
The Drug Market Intervention project in action.
After experiencing challenges with traditional law enforcement approaches, District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, Austin Police Department and the community plan to implement DMI to save the neighborhood on 12th and Chicon. Former High Point Police Chief James Fealy discusses how he learned that traditional enforcement actions do nothing to stop the open-air drug markets during his 30 years at Austin Police Department before moving to High Point, North Carolina in 2002 to take over as chief of police.
