If you have ever called the police( in an emergency) How long did they take to come ??

Question

I called the emergency number and it took 9 hours before they showed up!! It this normal !!

Answer 1

It would depend on the type of emergency. As a dispatcher, I understand that your emergency may very well be an emergency to you, but if I get a call of a person with a gun or knife, more than likely all of my available officers are going to be going to that call. That doesn't mean that we take your situation any less seriously, however, we must prioritize the calls. If you were calling because of a barking dog, then most certainly we are going to make sure all of the priority calls are taken care of first. If you were calling because someone was breaking into your house, AT LEAST two of my officers would be headed your way, and probably any other officers as they cleared the calls they were on. If I have none available, I make sure that they know what I have, and they would clear the call the were on to get to your home. Without knowing why you called, I can not answer why it took so long. But please always understand that the priority calls get taken care of first. We don't work on a first come first serve basis.

PS thank you to all law enforcement officers that make our communities safe. Underpaid and underappreciated!!!

Answer 2

Where I live, calls for service are prioritized based on the level of the emergency. For example, a man with a gun in a convenient store would certainly require a more prompt response than a minor traffic crash. There are too many circumstances such as the number of calls, the number of officers available etc for me to answer that question. Did you try calling back between the first call and the time they arrived? Everyone makes mistakes. Perhaps your call was assigned and the officer was handling other jobs and he never made it to you. I hope this gives you a different perspective and see not all things are as they seem. But then again, under the right circumstances, you could have a legitimate complaint.

Answer 3

My neighbor received a call from an estranged relative who said he was on the way over to kill her. She called the police, and it was almost 1 hour before they got here. I live in a fairly rural area, but not rural enough to warrant that slow of a response. And of course when they got here it was the old, well there is nothing we can do unless he shows up and tries to kill you. Which of course if he did they wouldn't be able to save her because it would take them too long to get here. I am not blaming law enforcement personnel for this, they are doing the best they can, and have to work within the law. I just recommend every law abiding citizen to have the means, and attitude to be able defend yourself, and family if you need to.

Answer 4

Depends what you call them for. I've made a variety of calls ranginfg from road accidents to escaped sheep. The police always attended promptly to these calls. However the most serious involved a firearm incident some years ago. The scene was that my daughter, then aged 10, ran into the house with a friend of a similar age. She told me that a car was driving up and down the street with a passenger firing a gun at random. The car was parked outside. I went out and approached the car.Inside were three youths, an asian and two English lads. I asked them if they had a gun and they told me to mind my own business. I took a note of their registration number, type of car and colour and went back inside to telephone the police. I then went back and told them. They drove away. Forty minutes later the police arrived. When I let them in they were laughing as they had gone to the wrong address and questioned two elderly people who, naturally, didn't know what they were talking about. I explained what had happened and that I was a little dismayed that they had taken so long and that I didn't find it funny. They made a report and left. Two days later they told me they had traced the car as belonging to an Indian shopkeeper, and his son plus two friends had been driving it around firing the gun at people for fun. It turned out to be a replica but looked and sounded very real. My daughter wouldn't go out alone for months. The three were arrested and charged with firearm offences. We had to attend Court three times as the case was defrayed twice. Eventually they made a plea bargain admitting to causing an affray if the firearms charges were dropped. They were. They were fined £25 each and ordered to pay my daughter £25 each in expenses. We received £5 in total from them and have heard nothing since. Personally I would have wished them to be charged properly. They caused a lot of panic and fear and if I'd have had my way I'd have taken them round the back of the house and given them a thrashing.

Answer 5

All police calls are assigned a priority. Obviously shootings, and serious in-progress calls are the highest...barking dog complaints are pretty low priority...and depending on what you call was about, the size of the police department where you live, what time of day, day of week, etc, there are so many factors that can affect response times.

And thats not to mention that most police departments are understaffed and barely funded....

Answer 6

that's nuts! Well it only take 3-5 mins for the police to come in my town. Shorter if the police are neraby. EMS 3 mins. one time some nut was banging on my door at 3 am, the police were there in less than 2 mins, guns drawn.

Answer 7

I think the response time depends on where you live. I live in a tiny rural community and if we call the police it will be a good 30 minutes unless we are lucky and there is an officer in the area. Thats why we all have guns here.

Answer 8

9 HOURS!!!!! D***! We got a better response time when some fools tried to rob a "well known cop bar" (REALLY well known, 1/2 block from a cop shop, neon sign was in the form of a deputies' star) The on duty cops only took 1 hour to decide that we really were serious and send units!

9 hours! Where the fu** do you live ....Iraq?

Answer 9

I lived in west VA for awhile. My landlord was a crazy old man who would show up drunk at our door, we always locked it or he would come right in. He came one time with a shotgun hollering about I-don't-know-what. I called the police, it was a Saturday night, apparently they were all off duty. I tried to stress that it was urgent, he had a gun, the dispatcher answered, "well, don't you have a gun?" Police finally came tuesday afternoon!

Answer 10

Whoa! You bet me. It only took an hour and 15 minutes for me.