Lies of Omission by NPR Are Still Lies

I was going to call this post "Lies, Damn Lies, and 911 Response Time Statistics," but the statistics are not lies. Only NPR's take is of questionable veracity. Why data from 15 cities shows police response times are taking longer

And it is not only NPR that is lying by omission; it is all of the Leftist media. They have acquired collective amnesia on the subject of Defund the Police. That amnesia is especially prominent when the subject of 911 response times arises.

This is a two minute radio segment by NPR (and the transcript) talking about increased response times for 911 calls in major cities. In some cases the response times have increased dramatically.

But those increases vary a lot. In New Orleans, average response times almost tripled, from 51 minutes in 2019 to 146 minutes last year. In New York, the number jumped less, from 18 minutes to 33. Asher says these figures are just a sampling of what's going on nationally. But the trend seems clear.

51 minutes is an incredibly long time to wait when something bad is happening, even assuming you can call BEFORE the bad things start happening. Though I will note that this article doesn't give a finer breakdown on times. The truly urgent calls versus less urgent calls.

So the question is, "Why are response times increasing so much?"

NPR does get as far as "staffing shortages."

CHUCK WEXLER: The national conversation among police is staffing is the No. 1 issue.

KASTE: Wexler runs the Police Executive Research Forum. He says older officers are quitting or retiring at a faster rate. And new recruits are harder to come by. He calls longer response times an early warning sign that the staffing shortages are now starting to have an effect.

WEXLER: If your house is being broken into and you need the police there in 4 minutes and they get there in 7 minutes, it makes a huge difference.

But why are officers retiring faster than ever before? Why are new recruits so hard to find? If this story from NPR was your only source of news on the topic, it would be a mystery.

Nowhere do they mention the "Defund the Police" movement. Nowhere do they mention the vitriol that has been spewed by the Left at police and policing. And they even seem shocked to discover that when a police department is understaffed, it can take longer to respond to a 911 emergency.