Cop shortage causes higher response times

[Mithras61]

http://www.khou.com/news/local/crime/st ... 50943.html

Houston police are taking longer to respond when you call for help.

KHOU

The latest response time figures from HPD show it’s taking as much as 50 percent longer for some calls than a few years ago.

And from further down in the article:

Add it all up, and it’s taking longer to get a cop to your house in Houston.

According to figures we got from HPD, since 2002, for less serious property crimes, the wait for an officer to arrive went from less than a half hour to more than 50 minutes before improving somewhat last year.

For crimes like burglaries in progress when no one’s home: eight-and-a-half minutes before, now more than 10 minutes.

And for the most urgent calls when your life is threatened, HPD used to respond in just more than four minutes, and now it’s taking five.

Sounds like a good reason (as if more were needed) to have firearms available to protect yourself. HPD is having difficulty getting officers because of increasing demands with no increase in funding. The same is happening in other departments across the state. I seem to recall reading that most violent crimes happen in less than 2 minutes. Sounds like increasingly we will be on our own to handle violent crimes (since police won't be available until well after the incident).

[JLaw]

I agree 100%. We are responsible for our own protection, no one can rely on the police to be there when your front door is getting kicked in.

Hey Mithras61, my bro-in-law is a deputy sherrif for Montgomery Co. Dist. 3 (east county), he told me that the S.O. has be allocated money and within the next several years (not sure how many yet) the Dist. 2 deputies that patrol the Woodlands will roll into a new "Woodlands PD". We will soon have our own city police department.

JLaw

[Mithras61]

I've heard something similar. I believe it's all part of the deal between Houston & The Woodlands that is discussed in this article http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4592681.html and this article http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/ ... 76243.html.

[KRM45]

Sounds like a good reason (as if more were needed) to have firearms available to protect yourself. HPD is having difficulty getting officers because of increasing demands with no increase in funding. The same is happening in other departments across the state. I seem to recall reading that most violent crimes happen in less than 2 minutes. Sounds like increasingly we will be on our own to handle violent crimes (since police won't be available until well after the incident).

One or two minutes can be a very long time.

I didn't see anything in this article about it, but one reason for the staffing issues in police departments accross the country is the lack of qualified applicants.