"They're Not Coming" - 911 Response Times in Vallejo, California

What happens when you lose a lot of police officers? As Vallejo police force shrinks, 911 response times soar

People are shocked to discover that if you don't have police officers on the PD payroll, then police officers can't respond to your 911 calls.

Vallejo, California is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the eastern shore of San Pablo Bay. It is about 13 miles south of Napa, or about an 25 mile drive north of Oakland. (Though that drive will take you about an hour, depending on traffic.)

The agency currently employs 73 sworn personnel — just 53 percent of its allocated positions and the lowest level in at least two decades.

Numbers in the department held fairly steady from 2014 to 2020, even if they were below the number of officers they were authorized to have.

However, the department has lost more officers than it hired in all but one of the last five years, with significant numbers departing in 2021 and 2023, public records show.

The response time to high priority calls have held fairly constant, rising by about 1 minute from "5 minutes and 56 seconds in 2019 to 6 minutes and 49 seconds this year."

The response time to lower priority calls has ballooned to 153 minutes (on average) for priority 3 calls.

Why have the numbers of officers fallen? Scandals, bad leadership, and a reform effort imposed by the California state DOJ. At least according to the journalists involved in this story. No mention is made of the defund the police initiatives most of the country dealt with. Maybe they were not an issue in Vallejo.

People in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, are being told by police to arm themselves for their own defense.

Nicole Hodge, a local restaurateur, reported a burglary. When cops showed up she was surprised at the quick response, but they were their to eat breakfast.

Frustrated by that incident and others like it, Hodge said she has grown weary of filing police reports and “realizing nothing happens.” When business owners met with police later that year to address the rash of burglaries, Lt. Steve Darden told Hodge she could buy a gun for protection, she said.

To Hodge, the message from Vallejo police was clear: “They’re not coming.”

Now to be fair, they were never coming to her rescue. "When seconds count, police are minutes away." That is true under the best circumstances. "The best" is not what exists in Vallejo, CA today.