The Austin Police Department has a budget dilemma -- how to keep residents safe, while still cutting costs. Chief Art Acevedo met with the Austin City Council Wednesday.

"Transparency is the key to success. We have gone from being an organization that if we could withhold information we did just because we could," Chief Art Acevedo said.

True to style, Chief Art Acevedo laid it all on the table for city council members Wednesday.

"A lot of people thought it couldn't be done," Acevedo said.

In one year, APD has gone from being $1.9 million in the red to a projected $1.6 million under budget.

Acevedo says he saved the majority of the money by cutting a policy that required 80 percent of on duty officers in each division of the city. Officers were doing a lot of overtime. Now, they go where they're needed.

"If we have a specific need that we can articulate based on call volume or an event going on then, the overtime is there. We're not going to do it across the board," Acevedo said.

"They have really stepped up to the plate," said Council member Mike Martinez. "We're not laying off officers. In fact, we're hiring more. We're just finding areas of savings that will have no effect on public safety or services we provide as a city."

Austin Police Association members say they'll make sure the budget never ranks above safety.

"If we run into those issues and we see that that's lacking and we get the feedback from the officers and the community, the chief's office will be well aware of that," said Wuthipong Tantaksinukj, APA vice-president.

The money saved will help the city recover from a $20 to 40 million budget deficit. All city departments are cutting back.