11 or 12 Minutes is a Long Time to Wait for 911 Response

Just call 911 and wait to be rescued. That is what the gun-hating part of the Left loves to say. It may not be the best strategy, or you may need a "Plan B." FOX 13 Investigates: Salt Lake City lowers the bar for police response times

According to data provided by SLCPD, the agency’s average response time for a Priority 1 call from September 2021 through September 2022 was 11 minutes, 58 seconds.

Priority 1 calls are the most urgent cases handled by the department. According to SLCPD policy, both Priority 1 and Priority 2 calls require “immediate attention.”

A lot of bad things can happen in 11 minutes.

There is some back and forth between SLCPD and Fox13 Now about what the current goal is for 911 response. It was recently set to 10 minutes. They can't meet that goal, so I guess I can understand setting it that way.

And they are getting better.

In August 2020, the department had an average Priority 1 response time of 18 minutes, 36 seconds.

Of course all of that is predicated on being able to call 911, and getting someone dispatched.

What would you do if no one answered 911? Texas man dies from heart attack as wife waits on hold with 911 for 15 minutes.

Tanya Gotcher found her husband of nearly 30 years, Cassy, on the floor of the home they shared and immediately dialed 911 — suspecting he was having a heart attack.

Gotcher was put on hold for 15 to 20 minutes, she told CBS Austin. Her husband died while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, according to the station.

Although that story is from Austin, Texas, 911 centers around the country are suffering from staffing shortages. Low pay, management who treats people like interchangeable parts and not like people, high stress (you're talking to people on the worst day of their lives), and people don't stick around. Couple that with excessive overtime, and you get burnout. And more staffing shortages.

No explanation was given as to why the phone went unanswered for 15 minutes.

The Left's war on police has real world consequences, and despite the assurances that "fewer police will result in less crime," from the Defund the police crowd fewer police officers mean a longer wait for 911 response. Did anyone really expect anything else?

Calling 911 is a fine thing to do. They can (and usually will) send all kinds of help your way. But if that is the only thing you are prepared to do, you might need to do some additional planning, for whatever kind of emergencies you expect to encounter.