The NYPD is getting slower in its old age. Though crime is down, the average amount of time it takes officers to respond to a 911 call has increased by 90 seconds since 2007, city statistics show. The police blame the drop on "'noncritical' jobs like graffiti," and we're totally sure that reduced number of cops on the street and the city's troubled consolidated police and fire 911 system, which NASA may be helping fix, have nothing to do with the drop.
According to the city so far in 2011 it takes an average for 8.4 minutes for the police to respond to crimes in progress. In 2007 it took 7.1 minutes and in 2010 it took 7.3.
Yet the NYPD says that we shouldn't worry our pretty little heads about this, because "The bulk of the increase in response times was for 'noncritical' jobs such as graffiti," according to Deputy Inspector Kim Royster.
Still, we're pretty skeptical of the NYPD's reasoning (as are the cops on NYPD Rant one of who points out "That damn graffiti used to slow me down big time when I was in a sector...Where do they come up with this crap?"). We haven't heard back from the NYPD, but we have a hunch the drop has as much to with the shrinking department size and the financially troubled Emergency Communications Transformation Program—which has been working since 2005 to create a unified NYPD and FDNY emergency call center in Brooklyn with a backup in the Bronx— as it does with graffiti.
Still, whatever the case, the next time you call 911 would you please be so kind as to leave an extra minute or two for the police to come to the rescue?
