Average response time: about ten minutes

As of 2013, the reported national average for police response time was 11 minutes.

Individual cities may measure response time differently because there is no national ‘standard’ for measuring them. This can cause a great disparity in numbers.

Not many cities ‘advertise’ their response times. Of those that have numbers that have gone public, the most recent data shows that emergency calls dispatched through 911 are not generating the quick response times the public would like:

Denver: A 2014 report shows that average response times for Denver from 2008 through 2013 increased. “Priority 0-2 calls, response times increased from an average of 11.4 minutes to 14.3 minutes. For Priority 3-6 calls, response times increased from an average of 20.5 minutes to 23.3 minutes.”

However, they may know why response times got worse: Our data analysis confirms that the majority of the increase in Denver’s police response times can be explained by the decreasing size of the City’s police force, which shrank by approximately 225 officers between 2008 through 2013.

New York City: Data from 2012 shows the average response time is 9.1 minutes. That’s the longest response time since 2003, and the wait time has been increasing every year.

Dallas: Violent crime is on the rise, as is the response time. As of Augut 2015, average response time sits at more than 8 minutes.

Milwaukee: 2010 data showed that it took almost 14 minutes on average for officers to respond to priority one emergency calls, such as shootings and armed robberies in progress.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply