The Dallas Police Department’s ongoing staffing shortage has had a serious impact on police response times in the city.
A City analysis states that a municipality the size of Dallas needs roughly three officers for every 1,000 residents, putting an ideal staffing level at around 4,000 officers. The department currently fields fewer than 3,200 officers.
The effects of the police shortage have been felt in Downtown Dallas. The city center logs far higher crime rates than Fort Worth’s downtown area, which is reportedly patrolled by a special neighborhood police unit that works alongside private security guards.
Perhaps surprisingly, DPD’s Central Patrol Division — which includes Downtown Dallas — is currently clocking the best response times for high-priority calls.
Calls to DPD are assigned a priority designation (1-4) based on the seriousness of the issue, with P1 calls signifying serious emergencies, like an active shooter or a home burglary in progress. P4 calls are at the other end of the spectrum, representing “non-critical” incidents.
According to the City of Dallas police response times dashboard, police are currently taking 8.2 minutes on average to respond to P1 calls in the Central Patrol Division, just over the 8-minute goal set by officials. The citywide response time average for P1 calls is 11.4 minutes.
P2 calls, however, take considerably more time to respond to, even in the Central Patrol Division. Data indicates that, on average, police are taking 41 minutes to respond to P2 calls in the jurisdiction. Citywide, that figure is 107.5 minutes. The City’s goal is 12 minutes.
When it comes to P3 calls, which include reports about random gunfire, open-air drug sales, and burglaries, callers can expect to wait on the police for 169.8 minutes on average in the Central Patrol Division. The citywide running average is currently 549.6 minutes.