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Now and then there are mentions of police response time, typically around 5 minutes. I haven't seen a good explanation of how that is measured. I assume it depends on the department, but then I also suspect that some of the numbers are made up.

For departments around you or that you know: Does the department actually track this on a continuing basis? Does the clock start ticking when the caller hits 911? ... when the dispatcher picks up? ... when the dispatcher actually send the message to the responding the unit? ... when the unit acknowledges the message?


Believe me, I like having 911 available and am ready to use it as intended. But when numbers are referenced, I like to know how they are measured.

threoh8 wrote:Now and then there are mentions of police response time, typically around 5 minutes. I haven't seen a good explanation of how that is measured. I assume it depends on the department, but then I also suspect that some of the numbers are made up.

For departments around you or that you know: Does the department actually track this on a continuing basis? Does the clock start ticking when the caller hits 911? ... when the dispatcher picks up? ... when the dispatcher actually send the message to the responding the unit? ... when the unit acknowledges the message?


Believe me, I like having 911 available and am ready to use it as intended. But when numbers are referenced, I like to know how they are measured.

In agencies I've been familiar with it's usually been calculated from time of dispatch to the field unit to time of arrival on scene.

That may not be true for all agencies.

In cad: on scene time minus dispatch time

Most departments now use computer aided dispatch (the CAD that Gigag04 referred to). This tracks the time the call was entered, the time it was dispatched, the time each officer acknowledged (sometimes, not always true), and the time each officer arrived at the scene. Most departments use the dispatch time to the first officer on scene time as the response time. Some agencies will give this as one average time, some will break it down and average it by the different priorities for the calls (usually, a 1, 2, or 3 type of system).

True response time is from when the call first comes in until the officer is actually on the scene, but this is almost impossible to determine. If an agency has just one dispatcher on duty, they answer the call and take a few seconds to get the records entered into the computer. Most officers will announce their arrival as they are pulling up or close to the call, depending on the call. If it is a dangerous enough call, some officers will announce their arrival on the radio, but wait for a backup before actually entering the location.

If there are separate call-takers from the dispatchers, the system will have a better idea of the actual time for the call coming in but there will still be some small data entry delay. I am guessing it would be possible to design a system that tracked when the phone started to ring by tying in to the phone computer system, but I have not seen one like that yet.

BTW, the time from the call coming in until actually dispatched is usually available. It is called either hang time or wait time, depending on the department. You might want to check into your local police times on this when you look at the reported response time if you ant a real picture of how long it takes to get an officer on the scene. And also remember that this includes an average of all calls, from when yours is the only one all day to when there is one call for every block in the city all at the same time.

Is this a trick question? The correct answer depends totally upon whether you are the caller or the callee.