Increase in emergency response time caused by insufficient staffing, traffic congestion

The pandemic has detrimentally impacted cities and counties in a lot of different ways, including an increase in emergency response time in some cities—a symptom of challenges like congested streets and staffing shortages.

In New Orleans, for example, a report from AH Analytics commissioned by the New Orleans City Council found it takes an average of 2½ hours for police to respond to a 911 call. 

“The average response time has tripled between 2019 and 2022 for non-emergency calls for service and it has doubled for emergency calls for service over that span,” reads an information presentation of the research submitted to the City Council July 28. For comparison, Little Rock, Ark. averages a 20 minute response time; Cincinnati, Ohio’s is 22 minutes; New York City’s is 30 minutes, and San Francisco’s is 76 minutes, or about an hour and a half.

Perhaps explaining why emergency response times have increased so dramatically, the department has struggled with retention over the same time period—the department’s current staffing of 974 officers and 20 recruits represents a nearly 10 percent decline since the end of 2021.

And with longer response times, residents aren’t receiving the help they need. The share of “gone on arrival” calls has jumped from 19 percent in 2019 to 32 percent this year.

Regardless of the reason why, the lengthening response times have contributed to a drop in the public’s opinion of the city’s police department—to its lowest point since 2009, according to an annual survey commissioned by the New Orleans Crime Coalition.

“While residents are deeply troubled by the level in crime in the city and are less satisfied with the NOPD than they have been in years, they are not anti-police,” said Loyola University’s Dr. Michael Cowan, chairman of the Crime Coalition, in a statement released alongside the findings. “In fact, a considerable majority of residents want more resources invested in law enforcement, including better pay for officers, increased legal use of crime solving technologies and tools, strengthened investigations and more manpower to patrol neighborhoods.”

Specifically, 92 percent of survey respondents support improving the department’s ability to respond to crimes (including by working to mitigate staffing shortages), and 90 percent want to see the number of social and counseling programs increase as a way to reduce crime. 

More broadly, research from LYT, an intelligence software company that operates in the public safety sector, illustrates challenges faced by the industry and conveys general concern among first responders about public safety and lengthening emergency response times.

“Emergency response times have slowed for a variety of reasons. Approximately 73% of respondents said they are operating at either the same response time, a slightly slower or even a much slower response time in comparison to the last two years. Thirty-two percent said there is more traffic congestion on the roads today, and 26% said there are more drivers unresponsive to emergency vehicles today,” the report notes, suggestion that the implementation of more preemptive technology that can change lights before an emergency vehicle arrives—to lessen the impact of traffic congestion—could be another way to speed up response times.

“The majority of respondents (roughly a third) said that between a quarter and half of all intersections within their community are currently using preemption technology. This leaves many other intersections without the use of this technology. A quarter of respondents said as few as 11% of their intersections use preemption technology,” the report says.