KPRC: HPD response times continue to worsen
KPRC-2's Robert Arnold checks in with some hard numbers on HPD response times that continue to worsen (thanks to the manpower crunch that was neglected for too long by City Hall):
For the Houston police officers patrolling our streets, the most urgent calls for help are classified as "priority one." That means someone's life is in immediate danger, and that's why officers are supposed to respond to these "priority one" calls in five minutes or less.
"That is an important performance indicator for us. We try to keep an eye as closely on that as we can," Executive Assistant Chief Tim Oettmeier said.
But when Local 2 Investigates analyzed three years worth of police response times, breaking down Houston neighborhood by neighborhood, we discovered more and more parts of the city are waiting longer than five minutes for police to respond to these life-threatening, "priority one" calls.
"What I hear from officers is we are short and could we get some help out here," outgoing Houston Police Officers’ Union president Hans Marticiuc said.
In 2004, police were taking longer than 5 minutes to respond to a third of Houston's neighborhoods. Two years later it was 43%. Through the first quarter of this year it was half the city.
"Any given shift you probably don't have more than 200 to 250 officers out on the street," Marticiuc said.
"For the entire city?" Arnold asked.
"Uh, huh," Marticiuc said.
Large outlying areas are especially challenging. Neighborhoods on the backside of Lake Houston, around Bush Intercontinental Airport, off I-10 past the Beltway, off Highway 288 are all waiting anywhere from 6 to 9 minutes for officers to respond to life-threatening calls.
"Sixty seconds, 120 seconds, 180 seconds make all the difference in the world,” Marticiuc said.
But it's not just the suburbs. Some neighborhoods inside the Loop and near downtown are also seeing more than 6 minute wait times.
"I'd like to say it's alarming, but it's almost to be expected with the shortage of personnel that we have," Marticiuc said.
Here's the dilemma. The bulk of officers is deployed to neighborhoods with the highest crime rates. That leaves neighborhoods with traditionally lower crime rates thin, and that means it takes officers longer to get to those areas when you call for help. Factor in traffic and the number of calls for help officers are handling at the time, the wait gets even longer.
"It's really an allocation issue and it's a very tough challenge," Oettmeier said.
Mayor White has pledged action (finally) on bolstering HPD's manpower, and we hope after his big election victory that he will be focused on this problem.
RELATED COVERAGE: Local 2 Investigates Unanswered Call For Help (Robert Arnold, KPRC-2 News).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/08/07 05:35 PM | Print |
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