Response times improve and worsen in Colorado Springs

If you are the victim of a shooting, a robbery, or any “Priority 1” call, where someone’s life is in danger, it will take CSPD nearly 12 minutes to get to you from the time you call 9-1-1.

It may sound like a long time, but that time is actually better than it was.

Newschannel 13 spent some time with an officer on patrol to better understand why response times are what they are, how they’ve improved, and the department’s plan to get them even lower.

16-year officer John Koch doesn’t get many breaks.

Over the course of several hours, he responded to call after call uninterrupted.

The Colorado Springs Police Department currently has 271 officers patrolling the streets, but only a fraction of them are on duty at any given moment.

For security reasons, the exact number wasn’t released.

54 cadets graduated the CSPD academy in January, and the recent push to pin more badges on uniforms is what the department credits for its lower response times.

In 2016, the average response for a Priority 1 call in all four divisions… was 13 minutes, 58 seconds.

So far in 2018, it’s 11 minutes, 50 seconds, nearly two full minutes faster, with each of the four patrol divisions achieving either equal or better response times.

“If we’re able to be there 20, 30, 40 seconds, a minute faster, that’s a very good thing for public safety, and that’s going in the direct we want to go,” said Sgt. Koch.

The department’s goal for Priority 1 calls is 8 minutes, which is nearly 3 minutes faster than the current average response.

CSPD will add 120 officers over five years to try to meet that goal.

“We’re not where we want to be. And that’s why we’re adding 120 bodies,” he added.

Police departments base their success on Priority 1 call responses, as they are the calls where time matters most.

Unfortunately, response times to less urgent calls have gotten worse.

In 2016, Priority 2 calls would average 27 minutes, 4 seconds. This year, 34 seconds slower.

Priority 3 calls have increased from 81 minutes in 2016 to 88 minutes this year.

Ironically, lower priority calls can often require just as much time to address.

A particular call taken by Sgt. Koch that night involved a terrified 8-year old boy who left home with his dog because he claimed his intoxicated father threatened to hurt the dog.

A passerby saw the boy wandering in the dark in southwest Colorado Springs and took him to a fire station to get help.

40 minutes later, Koch and another officer showed up at the fire station.

Even after being gone from home for more than an hour, no one had reported the boy missing.

The boy told them he just wanted to go back to his mom’s house, who lived in a different home than his dad.

Sgt. Koch checked him out for physical injuries while another officer made contact with the boy’s mother, then waited for his mother to pick him up.

After that, it was off to the home of the father, who received a citation for misdemeanor child abuse.

The call was far less serious than a fatal wreck or a deadly shooting, but it still took quite a while to address.

“By the time we get done doing what we need to do with dad, it’ll be close to 11pm, and the officer will have another hour or hour and a half of paperwork to do, and that’s three and a half hours for one officer. Two and a half hours for me,” explains Sgt. Koch.

But that’s the time required to make sure every case of neglect, every traffic stop, or every arrest for an outstanding warrant is properly handled and documented.

Just to be clear, often times when a Priority 1 call comes in, there may be an officer two or three minutes away.

However, almost every officer is responding to some type of call at all times, and they can’t suddenly abandon a situation, so the closest available officer may be 12 minutes away, and that’s why the response times are what they are.