SJ police staffing shortages blunt avg response times?

Police response times are increasing (and even doubling) in regions around the U.S., as discussed by NPR’s A Martínez and guests. Why? Many city police depts struggle to retain enough officers, whether due to budgetary cuts or retirement trends. SJ, too, has seen alarming upticks in average Priority 2 response times (now at 23.9 minutes, compared to the benchmark of 11 mins.), local police emphasizing that “we need more staff.”

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: Police response times are getting longer. That's according to a new analysis of the average time it takes cops in 15 cities to respond to calls ranging from low priority vandalism to acts of violence. As NPR's Martin Kaste reports, the longer waits come as police departments struggle to keep enough officers on staff.

MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: There isn't a national program tracking police response times, but some cities gather and publish their own stats. Jeff Asher, a crime analyst who publishes on Substack, compiled the numbers for 15 of those cities.

JEFF ASHER: A lot of the larger agencies - New Orleans, Nashville, Portland, New York City, Seattle - are seeing reasonably sizable increases in the average response time.

KASTE: But those increases vary a lot. In New Orleans, average response times almost tripled, from 51 minutes in 2019 to 146 minutes last year. In New York, the number jumped less, from 18 minutes to 33. Asher says these figures are just a sampling of what's going on nationally. But the trend seems clear.

This article originally appeared in NPR. Read the whole thing here.

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