GPD struggles with response time

GREENSBORO, N.C. — As the Greensboro Police Department awaits a consultant's report that will have a big impact on its future, it continues to struggle with a major problem.

For at least the past four years, the department's response times to its most urgent 911 calls have been far below its goal. And those times have gotten worse since 2000.

The department tries to respond to 80 percent of Priority 1 calls within six minutes.

But from January 2004 through January 2008, the department responded to only about 40 percent of those calls by that deadline.

"We know we've never come close to that," Police Chief Tim Bellamy said of the goal, "but it gives us a standard that we try to address."

In six minutes, a perpetrator with a car can get miles from the scene of his crime, and Asst. Chief Harold Scott concedes that even if police reach the goal, it would still be less than ideal. "Even with six minutes, if there's someone lurking in your house ... that's too long," he said.

There doesn't appear to be a generally accepted standard for how many police officers are enough, and the number of variables makes it difficult to compare staffing from one year to the next, but community leaders and senior and line officers seem to agree that the response goal is probably unreachable with current patrol staffing.

"In the ideal world, it would be 100 percent and five minutes, but I don't think that's possible," said Betsey Baun, president of the Charles B. Aycock Neighborhood Association.

Marie Stame, president of the Eastside Park Neighborhood Association, believes the current goal "would be (reasonable) if we have more police officers, but with the amount of police officers we have now ... no, I don't think it's possible."

Bellamy, too, says the problem is primarily one of manpower - and it is a problem that has gotten worse in recent years. In 2007, the department's average response time to Priority 1 calls was just more than 9 minutes. That's up from 6 minutes, 22 seconds in 2000.

"Do I beat my officers up if they don't get to a call in six minutes? No," he said. "We don't want an officer going 100 mph down Lawndale (Drive) in 5 o'clock traffic. It doesn't do any good if you don't get there at all."

If more officers are the solution, that solution may be a long time coming, particularly if the consultant's review doesn't call for more.

The review, by Carroll Buracker & Associates of Harrisonburg, Va., is scheduled to be presented to the City Council on July 7.

Meanwhile, the department is reorganizing the city's four patrol divisions to base more officers in areas that generate the most calls. Those changes take effect Tuesday, along with a city annexation that will increase the area officers must cover.

In the future, the department also may expand from four divisions to five or six, each with its own substation, to enable faster response, Scott says. But that depends on the review.

City Council member Robbie Perkins, who has pushed for more officers, says the city needs the report before deciding anything about staffing.

"I don't think anyone, at least on the political end of it, is remotely qualified to pass judgments on this stuff," Perkins said.

Mayor Yvonne Johnson agrees that the report must guide the city's decisions. But she also wants to consult with police chiefs in other cities.

"It may not be that we have to hire a whole lot more folks," she said. "But I think it would be something we absolutely need to look into."

To understand the problem, it helps to understand how the department deploys patrol officers.

It divides the city into 20 response zones, apportioned equally among the four patrol divisions - central, south, west and east. Each division, at full strength, is patrolled by 10 people, two to a zone. The central division also has a sixth squad in the center city.

But because of attrition and other vacancies, not every zone is staffed for every shift. So officers sometimes must respond to calls outside their zones, lengthening response time.

Currently, patrol is nowhere near full strength. When fully staffed, patrol positions encompass 320 officers. But earlier this month, the patrol staff had 55 vacancies.

When officers are particularly busy, Scott says, the department may reach out to Guilford County sheriff's deputies for help. Also, community resource officers, who don't normally respond to 911 calls, may be pressed into service, although some have been diverted to the department's gang unit, Scott said.

The city must put more officers on patrol to reduce response times, says Wendy Simpson Raines, president of the Greensboro Police Officers Association, the police union. But how many officers are enough?

"It wouldn't surprise me if (the consultant) came back and said we need to hire more officers," Raines said. "I don't know what number of officers is appropriate for a city this size."

Any major patrol expansion would take years because of the time it takes to recruit and train new officers - the application process, background checks, a 27-week police academy followed by 14 weeks of field training.

The 31 recruits now scheduled to graduate July 25 will replace officers lost to attrition.

The next academy class begins in August. Of the 40 members, 18 will go to the department's gang unit, but the remaining 22 will fill open positions.

One more academy class is scheduled to begin in March; Scott says most of those graduates likely will be added to patrol.

Bellamy says that depending on the consultant's report, the department may change squads and shifts to put more officers on the street at the times and in the places that generate the most calls.

But those change. For example, the department typically receives more nighttime calls in summer than in winter.

"Some days I wake up and say, 'Oh, my God,' " Bellamy said of the struggle to find a balance.

Such a goal may be more of a public-relations tool than a meaningful gauge of police effectiveness, says Jerry W. Joplin, associate professor of justice and policy studies at Guilford College.

Research suggests, he says, that if the caller's goal is to have police capture a suspect at the scene, even a 2-minute response time is probably too slow.

Scott and Bellamy say it was inherited from the administration of Robert White, Greensboro's police chief from 1998 to 2003. They say they understood the goal to have been a recommendation of the International City/County Management Association.

That group does not tout its figures as "industry standards," association spokesman Michael Lawson said. It just reports data that some law-enforcement agencies voluntarily submit.

But Raines says she is glad response time is still an issue: "Nothing's been done about this for four years, and we need some plans to be able to do something about it."

"People in Greensboro need to know what the situation is," he said. "(Past) chiefs have said there wasn't a need for more manpower, but you've got to be truthful with people."

"Even with six minutes, if there's someone lurking in your house ... that's too long,"

"When seconds count, cops are only minutes away."

2 posted on 07/01/2008 8:37:41 PM PDT by maine-iac7 (No trees were killed in sending this message but a large number of electrons were terrible agitated)

Bellamy says that depending on the consultant's report, the department may change squads and shifts to put more officers on the street at the times and in the places that generate the most calls.

I find it hard to believe they don't already do this. Matching your shifts to your workload is Law Enforcement 1A.

Policeman’s union says we need more cops. There’s a shocker.

And I love how response time “in an ideal world” is still five minutes. Anyone who believes that the police are actually there to protect citizens is lying to themselves. All they can ever do is clean up the mess.

This country’s citizens should never have gotten into the business of contracting out their basic self-defense to the government.

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