Police response times keep ticking up as the Dallas Police Department continues to do what it can to keep crime under control while maintaining an understaffed force.
Calls to DPD are assigned a priority designation (1-4) based on the seriousness of the scenario, with P1 calls representing extreme emergencies, like an active shooter or a burglary in progress. P4 calls are at the lower end of the spectrum, signifying “non-critical” incidents.
According to the City of Dallas police response time dashboard, Dallas police have been averaging 11.3 minutes to respond to P1 calls as of September 29. The average time across 2022 was 9.4 minutes. P1 calls in DPD’s South Central Patrol Division have been taking the longest to respond to, currently averaging 13.8 minutes.
At present, DPD has fewer than 3,200 officers on staff. However, a City report previously recommended that 4,000 officers were needed.
“Effective sworn staffing levels means having enough officers to respond to [P1] calls within the goal of 8 minutes,” the report reads, noting that a city the size of Dallas should have around three officers for every 1,000 residents.
Downtown Dallas has been affected by the shortage. Compared to Fort Worth’s downtown area, which is reportedly patrolled by a dedicated police unit that works alongside private security guards, the neighborhood regularly records far more crime.
Response times for P2 calls have also spiked. Last year, police averaged 64 minutes to get to P2 calls. At present, it takes 107.3 minutes on average. The situation is far worse in DPD’s Southeast Patrol Division, where it has been taking 190.8 minutes to respond to such calls.
Robbery reports, designated as P2 calls, take 118.4 minutes to respond to on average citywide, up from 66 minutes in 2022. Response times for robberies have more than doubled in eastern Dallas, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“The primary driver increasing response times is an increase in Priority 1 and Priority 2 calls for service. These high-priority calls require more officers to respond to the scene,” said Brian E. Martinez, a DPD public information officer, in a previous statement to The Dallas Express. “The increased number of officers needed for the higher priority calls decreases availability for low-priority calls, and longer wait times on those calls for service.”
As of September 29, there have been 29,779 P1 and 213,489 P2 calls for service. In all of 2022, there were 37,613 P1 and 291,624 P2 calls, according to the police response time dashboard.
