OAKLAND, Calif. - The Oakland Police Department's average time to respond to the most serious calls for help has increased dramatically over a year's time with no explanation as to why.
City data showed that response times to Priority 1 calls jumped from an average of 23 minutes in 2022 to months in 2023 where the response times maxed out between 50 and 61 minutes.
That information was presented on Tuesday to the city's Public Safety Committee, where Human Resource Manager Amber Fuller told the members that there was a 2% uptick in Priority 1 calls from year to year, but otherwise, there were "no significant trends or patterns were discovered to explain the increase."
Priority 1 calls are the most serious, involving "imminent injury" and preventing violent crimes.
Her comments drew no questions from the committee members, including Chair Rebecca Kaplan, or the audience.
The data showed that there was one month in February 2023, where the average response times took just over 12 minutes.
But then there were the response times in May, which took an hour and 2 minutes; July, which took nearly 52 minutes; and August, which took about 49 minutes.
Response to urgent Priority 2 calls in 2023 ranged from a low of 2.5 hours to a high of 11 hours, city data showed.
And for Priority 3 calls, which are situations where there is no threat or danger to life? The average fastest response time in 2023 was nearly 6 hours, and the slowest was 20 hours.
The police department also told the committee that to date, OPD has 708 sworn officers, and the budget authorizes 712. The current academy also has 14 officers set to graduate next month.
OPD's budget is $358 million for the current fiscal year and next year's budget is $364 million.