Sheriff Response Times (by county?)

[Diggers]

I think the bottom line here is simply TOO LONG.

Unless the police are going to be instantly beamed in to your house between you and the threat (with out you even calling 911) ITS TOO LONG.

No matter how fast they get there minutes will pass between the time you recognize a threat and the police arrive.

Alot of bad things can happen in that amount of time.

 

[Lancel]

The link on Post #24 (by freakshow10mm) gives the answer.

For aggravated assault, 34.8% of the incidents required 11 minutes to 1 hour response time.

There plenty more data there. Thanks, freakshow.

Larry

 

[ZombieHunter]

Which reminds me:

Many moons ago I was driving along a secluded road on my way home. I passed a little one lane bridge and slowed down because it's the prudent thing to do. On the other side of the road a newer volvo/bmw with license plate reading "Inocent" pulled off.

I watched an older white guy holding a 4-6 year old asian girl by the hand start leading her into the woods. So many parts of that gave me so many bad vibes that I called the police but kept driving (I should have stopped immediately and pretended to be interested in the stream).

I know it was 99.999999% likely just the girls grandpa but he looked creepy as all get out and it just didn't sit right. Anyway long story short, between me dialing 911 and saying "look it's probably nothing or it's a creep leading a 5 year old into the woods to kill her" to turning back and waiting for the cops was a solid 10 minutes.

No one was every reported missing and no body was ever found so it was probably just a grandpa...but moral of the story is the police station is about 3 miles from that place. 10 minutes is not ok when someone could have been kidnaped or killed.

 

[JWarren]

More anecdotal evidence, sorry. I guess, however, that this thread itself becomes somewhat of a survey.


I live 25 miles from our sherrif's office, and typically they have 2 units out in an entire county. In December 2006, my home was broken into. The Deputy arrived in 25 minutes-- which was actually amazing when you consider the distances.

The problem, however, is that if you are depending on 911 for your safety, 25 minutes is FAR TOO long.

We don't have illusions that 911 will protect us, and our LEOs are glad unreasonable expectations are not placed upon them.

Even so, our sherrif isn't real thrilled about the response times in our county but has very little ability to change them without a huge influx of money or the abilty to alter the time/space contininum.

He has been working on a novel idea that I hope he institutes which involves a group of "volunteers" spread across the county who can be called to just go to a residence in their community if there is a problem-- just to have a person there while the LEO is enroute.

He bounced the idea off of me a few months ago, and I told him that essentially our community does that anyway (we have a few jumpy neighbors who like to get things checked out-- for some reason they call my dad or me.) I told him that I thought the idea had merit.



At any rate. The short of it is that 25-35 minutes is the best LEO response we will get here-- through NO fault of thier own.



-- John

 

[Schutzen]

JWARREN

The Sherriff has a good idea and that is the "norm" in most rural areas of the mid-west. However, it is imposing quite a risk on the "volunteer responders". My personal opinion is it would work better with "reserve deputies" who are certified and insured by the county. The reserve deputies need not be paid, but then the county and not the individual would assume the risk for their actions. A classic example I am aware of is a son who responded to his mother's call about a prowler. She called the Sherriff first but her son was the first on the scene. The prowler was not a prowler, but a burglar loading up a pick-up truck from the mother's garage. The son arrived and parked in the driveway. The burglar heard the car stop, jumped in his truck and rammed his way thru the son's car. The son's car was totaled and the insurance company initially refused to pay because "he was performing a law enforcement duty". A few quick calls from the son's attorney and the car was covered, but what if it was a huge medical bill instead of a car or what if it was Joe checking on Mrs. X for the Sherriff? Would he be covered then?

Just my 2 cents, but I do really like the idea of "citizens" helping LEO's in remote rural areas. I live 25 miles from the Sherriff’s Department and 10 miles from the nearest deputy’s home.

 

[TallPine]

He has been working on a novel idea that I hope he institutes which involves a group of "volunteers" spread across the county who can be called to just go to a residence in their community if there is a problem-- just to have a person there while the LEO is enroute.

My personal opinion is it would work better with "reserve deputies" who are certified and insured by the county. The reserve deputies need not be paid, but then the county and not the individual would assume the risk for their actions.

I was seriously considering applying to be a reserve officer (a former sheriff actually asked for volunteers from our neighborhood one time at a local meeting) but I don't want to ever in any fashion be called to be part of the War on Drugs

Being a volunteer "peace officer" is acceptable, but not "law enforcement".

We have a VFD - I don't see why we couldn't get some additional training to be available for other things. We already have been called out for a search. Also, many of us already have 2-way radios at home.

 

[MinnMooney]

Here's a chart for 2005 :

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/cvus/current/cv05107.pdf

Sorry, this chart didn't come out in the proper columns but click on the above wesite for the easy-to-read version.

What got to me was 30+ % of the incidences got the 11 minutes -1 hour response time for VIOLENT CRIMES !! :banghead:
Table 107. Personal and property crimes, 2005: Download spreadsheet version
Percent distribution of incidents where police came to the victim,
by police response time and type of crime
Percent of incidents
Longer Length of
Within 5 6-10 11 minutes- Within than 1 time not Not
Type of crime Total minutes minutes 1 hour 1 day day known ascertained
Crimes of violence/a 100.0 % 28.9 % 27.9 % 34.0 % 3.8 % 1.9 %* 3.4 % 0.2 %*
Robbery 100.0 29.4 24.0 31.2 4.0 * 5.0 * 5.2 * 1.2 *
Aggravated assault 100.0 30.5 29.7 34.8 3.5 * 0.0 * 1.6 * 0.0 *
Simple assault 100.0 26.9 29.0 34.8 3.7 * 1.7 * 3.9 * 0.0 *
Property crimes 100.0 % 10.0 % 18.2 % 48.7 % 15.0 % 1.6 % 6.3 % 0.1 %*
Household burglary 100.0 8.5 20.9 51.7 12.5 0.8 * 5.6 0.0 *
Motor vehicle theft 100.0 7.9 21.7 43.7 19.6 0.5 * 6.1 * 0.6 *
Theft 100.0 11.3 15.9 48.0 15.5 2.3 6.8 0.1 *
Note: Detail may not add to total shown because of rounding.
*Estimate is based on about 10 or fewer sample cases.
a/Crimes of violence includes data on rape and sexual assault, not shown separately

 

[Rumble]

MinnMooney, that's very helpful info!

So, 66% of the time, if someone's putting the boot to you, the cops are there within 10 minutes. Probably a considerable chunk of that remaining 34% is there within 15 minutes (11 minutes to 1 hour is a big window).

The way I see it: I would greatly like to see that 34% be smaller, of course, and 15 minutes is more thane enough time for someone to end you, but I find it relatively impressive that the aggregate response time is that fast. I mean, I think about how often I see a cop (which is rarely, actually) and yet, 10 minutes they can be there.

Obviously, this puts paid to the OP's friend's argument, but I still am somewhat impressed. Of course, what I take away from this is that I ought to plan to handle things for those first 10-20 minutes.

 

[armedandsafe]

Once, when living in a San Diego suburb, I was told by police dispatch that there were no officers available. I held the phone away from my face and yelled to FirstInLine, "Get the shotgun, honey. We have to go clear ******'s house of some burglars." I then went out back to count police cars. Five cars within 2 minutes.

Pops

 

[MD_Willington]

Police or sheriff can come from 3 places where I live;

• 34 mins at posted speed
• 19 mins at posted speed
• 33 mins at posted speed

We don't usually see them around though.

 

[AlaskaErik]

I live in a borough larger than the state of West Viginia. There are maybe five or six troopers on duty, max. I have not only a right, but a duty to provide for my own defense. The police are simply the cavalry. They'll eventually get there, but until they do, I'm on my own. For some reason, there are people out there who have totally abdicated their responsibility for self defense to the police. The root cause of this is a whole 'nother discussion.

 

[The Annoyed Man]

Fortunately, I haven't had to test local response times here in Grapevine, but I'm not too worried about it. This is an efficiently run little town with a fairly low crime rate. Incidentally, we just had a security system installed and hooked up at our house last week, but we are a fairly heavily armed home, and the only member of my household who isn't reasonably proficient with a firearm is my 85 year old mother in law. I love her dearly, but honestly, I would feel safer arming a chimp than giving her a gun. She can't manage the TV remote. There is no way she is going to learn to shoot a gun. Between the security system, a part pit-bull family dog, and enough weapons to go around, we're set.

I've never believed - even before I was a gun owner - that the police were my primary line of defense. I still don't, and it is not for lack of faith in my local PD. I'm sure they are very good. It is simply that, for philosophical/faith reasons, I believe that God is my first defense, but that he may call on me to be the agent of that defense, and I have a moral/religious obligation to be prepared for that possibility.

 

[TWBryan]

3 hours to never,where I live.