Austin 311, the city’s non-emergency line, stopped answering overnight calls Sunday as part of a yearlong pilot meant to save money and align more staff with the line’s highest call frequency periods.
The line used to take calls 24 hours a day, but now, only accepts calls between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m., excluding city holidays, according to an Oct. 20 memo from Austin Energy.
Gerardo Galvan, Austin Energy’s vice president of customer care services, said the change aligns staffing with demand. He said more than 90% of calls came in between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m., and the line handles just under 900,000 calls annually, or 2,500 to 3,500 calls daily.
“We do anticipate that we will have savings, but that will be through natural attrition, meaning we’re not doing any layoffs,” Galvan said. “As staff retires, gets promoted, then we just might not replace those positions, and that’s why the pilot will last a year, because we’re not making any immediate decisions.”
Galvan said residents can still submit non-emergency requests anytime through the Austin 311 mobile app and website, which received over 100,000 requests in fiscal year 2026.
Elizabeth Bell, an associate professor of public policy, said the change could create barriers for residents who have difficulty accessing or navigating digital services, including unhoused people, older adults and those with limited English proficiency. She said the change could also increase wait times by causing an influx of calls made to Austin 311 at 7 a.m. when the line opens.
Bell said the most concerning issue that could arise is residents turning to 911 for non-emergency complaints, potentially increasing wait times for emergency calls.
“In the city of Austin, our response time is around 10 minutes, and we’ve been looking to bring that down to six minutes for a long time,” Bell said. “With no 311 overnight, those 10% of calls are going to be shifted to 911, and if that drives up the response time for real emergencies, that’s a very big problem.”
