Edmonton police divisions in west end struggle to meet response times

Police divisions on Edmonton’s west end are struggling more than other divisions in the city to meet response time targets.

Information in a report headed to the Edmonton Police Commission meeting on Thursday show that the southwest, west and northwest divisions are struggling to hit targets in responding to certain priority calls.

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The southwest division is taking the longest to respond to P1 calls, described as an assault with a weapon in progress. The response time target for P1 calls is seven minutes – the southwest division is only meeting that target 44.7 per cent of the time.

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The next worst division in responding to P1 calls is northwest, which sees only 60 per cent of calls responded to within the response time target.

The west division takes the longest to respond to P4 calls, for example, a shoplifter who is in custody. The data shows only 62.6 per cent are responded to within 40 minutes, which is the response time target for those types of calls.

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The northwest division comes in second worst at 66.8 per cent.

For P5 calls, described as issues that are not time sensitive, every division except the downtown division gets a failing grade.

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The northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest and west divisions all fail to meet the target of responding within 180 minutes to a P5 call 80 per cent of the time.

The west division only hits that target roughly half, or 54.1 per cent, of the time.