Edmonton police still struggling to meet response time targets

Edmonton Police Serviceresponse times have improved slightly for emergency matters, but police arestill struggling to reachresponse targets.

According to a report presented to the Edmonton Police Commission, EPS received 166,788 calls in 2017, up two per centfrom 2016.

The vast majority of those calls are for non-urgent matters, classified as priority 4 or 5.

"We don't have enough police officers to respond to every single call to meet those priority levels," saidChiefRod Knecht.

When it comes to urgent calls, where a person's life is at risk, the servicehit its seven-minute response time targetin 72 per centof calls, compared to 71 per centin 2016.

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More calls for property crime

Police try to respond within three hours to less urgent crimes,but only met that target 59 per centof the time last year.

Knecht saidthe nature of crime has changed in Edmonton over the years, with calls for property crimes on the rise.

"We have a lot more folks complaining about property crime," saidKnecht. "So we just don't have the capacity to meet those targeted times."

He encouragedvictims to report property crime through the EPS website, to reduce the need for police officers to respond in person.

Slowest response in southwest

Statistics show the southwest division of EPS has the slowest response times.

The target for high-priority emergency calls was met 51 per centof the time in 2017, and56 per cent for low priority, non-urgent calls.

KnechtcitedEdmonton's geography as a factor inresponse times.

"When we have one bridge, and we have to cross that one bridge to get to that destination, that's really a bottleneck for us. It's a challenge for us," he said.

EPS is hoping to improve on its response times by being more efficient in its dispatching.