FWPD response time in 2015 for life-threatening emergencies is nearly 10 minutes - report

www.wfaa.com...

According to data to be presented to the City Council on Tuesday, the citywide average for a "Priority 1" Call — defined as a call with an immediate threat to human life — is now nearly nine minutes and 45 seconds.

Perhaps most troubling is that in the northern division of the city, the average response time for a Priority 1 call is now approaching 12 minutes, an increase of almost two minutes since 2011.

Saw this report pop up on one of the local news stations. From the report, the response times have been increasing as time goes forward. The average for last year was 50 seconds faster. For the northern area, it was 2 minutes faster in 2011.

The problem isn't a new one, and Shingleton stresses that the volume of Priority 1 calls remain low for his area. But he says the uptick this year — coupled with frequent citizen feedback on all types of 911 calls — make it a pressing issue.

The DFW area has been growing fairly rapidly in the past few years, and I'm not too surprised to see that response times for priority 1 calls have been increasing. (more people, more construction, etc...). Ideally, it should be far far less.

"It's budget time, and we're working on things," he said. "Traffic is an issue for the officers in my area. Getting up I-35 is, indeed, a challenge."

There's a new station planned to be constructed in the northern division within a year, so hopefully that could help that area eventually.

My sister lives in Burleson and I've been through the D/FW traffic nightmare more time than I can count. Always a lane closed, construction or hold ups somewhere. Getting an ambulance through that quickly is near impossible. I know it all comes down to money, but with the area expanding at the rate it is, building more fire houses, police stations and ambulance stations is about the only answer. You can't expect a cop or an ambulance to get halfway across town in a reasonable amount of time, no matter the emergency. People will scream for more help, but cry if taxes go up to fund that help.

a reply to: buni11687

Uh, I don't know if you're new to Texas or not, but.......those response times are right in line with Houston; in fact, depending upon the Priority assigned to the call, the times reported are better than in Houston. There's a reason for that......manpower shortages, at least thats the problem in Houston. And its an intentional shortage.

The way things work in Texas has a history I'll outline as follows:
Around about the year 2000, Texas cities realized they were sitting on a Police & Fire pension bomb, so two things happened: a) they offered early retirement packages and they were gobbled up then b) they changed the pension systems for new hires. As the cops that didn't take the early out, (only about 10%) did finally leave, the "cities" were hit with "You got no diversity", (too many white cops), so......the cities quietly relaxed the rules about former crooks being eligible and put priority on hiring "minorities". That hasn't worked very well and Houston has had problems getting above 50% staffing.

Against the backdrop of this disaster, citizens got angry and legislators responded with Concealed Carry laws and the Castle doctrine, (look it up, but basically you can defend yourself, your property, your neighbor's property from ongoing criminal activity with deadly force if you believe your life or the lives of innocents are in imminent danger of extinguishment). In the Houston/Harris County area, most of the middle class lives "in county", not in the city so they depend on the Sheriff's office and the local Precinct Constables for law enforcement. I worked with those agencies and the message we were given was that the passage of the CHL and Castle Doctrine was to bring in a new policy in law enforcement, i.e., the LEO's were going to adopt the position of "clean up crews"; the cops expected You the homeowner to dispatch the bad guys and call them when that started and they'd show up after the necessary problem had been solved, one way or the other, to collect bodies and other evidence.

So......response times are now in keeping with that policy and to newcomers, the message is....grow a pair, get firearm training, a fire arm and a CHL! Pretty much, you're on your own. Get over it. And no.....Texas taxpayers aren't going to pony up more in taxes for more cops. We have plenty of cops; more than we'd like to see on the roads and highways as it is.