Dallas police propose new strategies to improve response times on emergency calls
Dallas TX June 30 2022
Dallas police plan to boost the number of police reports they take online and over the phone and want to create a new civilian unit to respond to lower-priority calls in an effort to get to emergencies faster.
The department proposed the ideas Monday that they want to implement over the next few months to the City Council’s public safety committee in light of a recent uptick in police response times, including on highest-priority calls like shootings.
Police also discussed ideas to make tow management more efficient and reduce the amount of time officers and residents spend waiting for tow trucks, which the department plans to present in more detail in August.
Council members generally approved of the strategies and encouraged police to make educating residents on the changes a priority, although some council members wanted more information on the civilian unit.
Police response times have spiked in recent years, which the department has attributed to more calls for service and a shortage of officers. From 2011 to 2021, Dallas police 911 administrator Robert Uribe said there’s been a 53% increase in the number of highest-priority calls — priority ones — even as the number of sworn officers has fallen 11%.
There are currently about 3,100 Dallas police officers. About 3,500 to 3,600 officers worked in the department in 2014, but hundreds left during a pension crisis in 2016-17.
“Response times have been a challenge,” police Chief Eddie García told the committee. He said the proposed strategies are meant to serve the community better and allow “officers to have more time to do the proactive policing that we desperately need in this city.”
Calls to police are assigned a priority of one to four, with priority ones considered emergencies and priority fours “non-critical.” On average, five officers are required to respond to each priority one call.
Response times for priority ones, which include shootings, increased this year through May 31 about 10.9% — for an average of 8.4 minutes — compared with the same period in 2021, Uribe said.
In that same period, response times for priority twos, which include domestic violence, increased about 74.2% for an average of 48.7 minutes this year, he said.
Response times for priority three and priority fours have also increased more than 100% each.
“Everything is on the rise — the call volumes, the response times,” Uribe said. “This is leading to unacceptable response times overall.”
The problem was illustrated in a case earlier this year in which a 25-year-old woman called police for help more than an hour before she was found dead in her Oak Cliff apartment, where she’s believed to have been strangled by her ex-boyfriend. Her call was labeled a priority two, and the department’s stated goal is to respond to those within 12 minutes.
Uribe said almost 20% of the current police workload is related to calls that aren’t in progress and could be taken online or over the phone. Dallas police already take some reports that way, but Uribe said the department can expand requirements, create a new civilian unit and have some calls diverted to other city departments.
He said police could require residents come to substations to file reports or report online or over the phone for low-priority calls that aren’t in progress, such as minor accidents, thefts, criminal mischief and burglaries of coin-operated machines or vehicles. Patrol officers have spent an average of 134,091 hours on those calls each fiscal year from 2018 to 2021, he said.
Uribe also proposed creating a civilian unit to respond to those calls and other low priorities, such as reports of abandoned properties, loud music, panhandling, sleeping in public, burglaries of residences and businesses that aren’t in progress, animals calls where no one is in danger, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and missing persons. Patrol has spent an average of 60,329 hours on those calls each fiscal year from 2018 to 2021, he said.
Police could also divert some calls to other city departments, he said. Police have already gained council approval to transfer reports of parking violations and street blockages to the city’s transportation department, which should be in place by the end of 2022.
If the new strategies are implemented, Uribe said the hours previously spent on those calls — which equate to a total of 99 full-time patrol positions — can be rededicated to priority ones and twos.
Council members encouraged police to look deeper into the possibility of having civilians respond to certain calls, which city officials acknowledged would require additional staff. Most praised police for the creative strategies, though they highlighted the persisting problem of staffing shortages.
Adam McGough, who chairs the public safety committee, said some calls start as minor issues but can turn violent quickly, adding there needs to be an understanding that police will still respond if an incident turns violent.
“I understand the need for this, I just — I don’t like it,” McGough said. “I wish there was another way, but when we have shortage of staffing this is what we’re dealing with.”
Police plan to move forward with the strategies. The chief said the department will conduct outreach to educate the public and will be training staff on the changes over the next few months.
