Editorial: Define Priorities, But Response Times Matter

Many people who dial 911 likely believe they are in a true emergency. But those who answer the calls know there is a difference when it comes to responding to “shots fired” or “intruder in home” compared to “two-vehicle accident with broken leg.”

So it may make sense for the Albuquerque Police Department to expand the way it prioritizes calls for service so emergencies requiring immediate attention by law enforcement, as opposed to paramedics, are considered “Priority 1″ and less serious calls are ranked in four or five descending categories. But it makes no sense to discount the importance of police response times.

It took APD officers 9 minutes, 42 seconds to respond to Priority 1 calls last fiscal year — a 10-year high and slower than the 8 minutes, 43 seconds in fiscal 2010. Chief Ray Schultz says “one of the worst things we did as law enforcement is tracking those response times, because response times aren’t necessarily a good indicator.”

Schultz also is proud to say the three “most important, life-safety calls” — robbery, shooting and stabbing — are answered on average in 6 minutes, 38 seconds, quicker than the 7 minutes, 14 seconds it took last year. So clearly response times matter sometimes.

Right now the call categories are static, and the indicator for Priority 1 response times is, quite simply, up. More calls (59,789 last fiscal year compared with 57,524 in fiscal 2011) and fewer officers in the field (452 in fiscal 2012 compared with 474 in fiscal 2011) are the likely culprits, but up is up. Whether police union spokesman Ron Olivas is right when he says the 59-second increase in response times shows the level of service APD is delivering to the community is down depends on whether you put more weight on all Prioritry 1s, or the ones Schultz describes as calls in the most important, life-safety category.

So yes, the chief’s plan to consider re-categorizing calls for service based on immediate need may be a solid step toward ensuring the most serious calls get the most immediate response. But that plan should also give some consideration and weight to other life-threatening situations, including fights in progress, wrecks with serious injuries and domestic violence calls.

And it must still entail tracking response times.

Because for the people APD serves, that’s the most easily understood measure of how efficiently and effectively their police department responds to their needs.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.