The Edmonton police department’s ability to meet response-time targets has hit an all-time low, according to a new report prepared for the Edmonton Police Commission.
The department managed to meet its targets only 67 per cent of the time during the first half of this year. That was a dramatic drop from the 85 per cent success-rate recorded in 2011.
(Edmonton Police Service )
Police chief Rod Knecht said that likely doesn’t mean residents will be left waiting longer than seven minutes if a call is a true emergency, and lives are in danger.
There has been a slight improvement in response times to those emergency calls, with officers reaching the scene within the seven-minute window 71 per cent of the time.
But only about two per cent of calls to police are considered priority one.
“If it’s a 911 call, we’ll be there ASAP,” Knecht said. “Non-emergent calls, we’re really dropping. We’re taking longer and longer to get there, and that’s unfortunate.”
Police have set a 40-minute target to respond to priority-four calls; for example, arresting a shoplifter who is in custody and is co-operating with security. Officers managed to meet that target 69 per cent of the time.
A priority-five call means there is no time sensitivity, so a three-hour response target has been set. Even with that window, police only meet the target 60 per cent of the time.
The chief appeared frustrated when he addressed the response time issue this week.
“We don’t have enough people to be everywhere all the time,” he said. “So we prioritize. And we try to sensitize people to the fact that if it’s a non-emergent crime, if it’s a non-violent crime, it’s going to take us a little while longer to get there.”
Asked if he plans to ask for more money or more officers to address the issue, Knecht said that will ultimately be up to taxpayers.
“It’s a democracy,” he said. “And if the public wants more police, the public are going to make that known.”
Volume of calls has increased
In the first half of 2016, there were 81,918 calls that required officers to be dispatched. That works out to an average of 452 calls each day.
Knecht admitted officers are being run off their feet.
“We are going from call to call to call, all shift long,” he said.