All About Its History and Legal Importance
Many people are unfamiliar with the origins of Travis County, the county that the Austin Criminal Lawyer team calls home. It is named in honor of William Barret Travis, the commander of the Republic of Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo. While we may have lost the battle, Texas won the war!
The original county census reflects that roughly 3,000 people made Austin their home in 1850. A hundred years ago in 1910 the population had grown to a meager 10,000 or so people. The Greater Austin Metropolitan Area now has over 1.3 million people.
Travis County’s Attractions
Austin has been one of the fastest growing cities in the United States for over a decade now. The combination of a very strong workforce and excellent weather has made Austin a mecca for new business particularly the tech industry. The county accounts for multiple Fortune 500 companies and with each new year more move into town. It is also home to the University of Texas, the largest educational institution in the United States. As they say everything is bigger in Texas. The University is also where James Gill, our favorite Travis County lawyer, completed his legal training.
Travis is also home to world-renowned SXSW interactive festival. Each year tech companies from all over the world show up to see what is the newest innovations and speculate about the future of the industry. Bill Gates was the keynote speaker in 2012. The county also fields one of the most successful Live Music festivals in the country, dubbed ACL, short for “Austin City Limits Festival.” Hundreds of bands come to the city each year to play in front of sold-out crowds.
Legal Trends in Travis
As any Travis County lawyer can tell you, with any rise in population you can expect an increase in crime. On a populace basis the percentages do not reflect any significant increase in crime, but on a per count basis a steady increase in crime can be noted.
There are two major Travis County jails: the downtown facility, which is the detention and processing center that Austin citizens are most likely to know, and the much larger Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle.
One of the most recent emerging trends in the county is the proliferation of the Mexican drug cartels’ presence. In 2013 a new federal courthouse was opened in part to deal with rising organized crime in the area. It has become a distribution hub for several of the major cartels including the Sinaloa, Juarez, and Zetas cartels. With its proximity to Mexico, the county has become a landing or holding spot for distribution. Drugs are brought from Mexico and stored all over the county and then distributed nationwide. With major highways running North, East, and West, the county is a logical distribution hub for organized crime.