The amount of time it takes for a police officer in Long Beach to respond to a call for service has surged in the past three years.
The Long Beach Post, which cited city data, reported that the response times for non-emergency calls jumped more than 20 minutes. It also found that response times to “life-threatening” calls increased to five minutes and 48 seconds.
When it comes to non-emergency calls, people could be waiting up to an hour for an officer to arrive, which is 20 minutes longer than it took in 2021.
The longer response times are due to vacancies in the department. The outlet reported that the department had more than 155 vacancies as of last month.
City Councilmember Daryl Supernaw told KNX News’ Jon Baird that with incentives, they think they'll be able to boost the ranks.
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“It’s in the neighborhood of $54,000 for a new officer and up to $78,000 for what they call police collateral,” he said.
The Long Beach Police Department isn’t the only one struggling to hire more people. The Los Angeles Department is also facing similar issues.
In June, the department reported having 8,799 sworn officers which was below Mayor Karen Bass’ hiring goal of 9,504 officers.
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