COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Colorado Springs is facing a shortage of funds and police officers, triggering longer response times to emergencies and leaving thousands of 911 unanswered, authorities said.
The lack of resources is forcing the department to stop responding to nonemergency calls where there are no suspects. Those calls would include vandalism and thefts. Police said they will instead focus on bigger crimes, and also disband the traffic patrol unit.
“We’ve tooled it as best as we can,” said Colorado Springs police Lt. Skip Arms, a spokesman for the department.
About 690 police officers patrol the city, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau has a population of about 399,000. Colorado Springs is the second largest city in the state behind Denver.
A 2003 U.S. Department of Justice study found cities with a population of at least 250,000 people had an average of 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents. At 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, Colorado Springs needs more than 300 officers to meet that goal.
Colorado Springs police reach a “saturation point” almost half the time each day, meaning all officers are responding to calls, Arms said.
“We have to take people off other calls,” Arms said.
In 2007, it took police an average of little more than 10 minutes to respond to emergencies. The department’s goal is to arrive within eight minutes most of the time. Also, police said up to 2,500 911 calls are unanswered every month because of a lack of call takers. Those calls are returned using the city’s reverse 911 system, according to Tina Young, police communications center manager.
Stephanie Finley, with the Colorado Springs-based Citizens for Effective Government, said the group may propose a new sales tax to raise an additional $70 million annually that would be split among police, the sheriff’s and coroner’s offices, and the district attorney’s office.
Finley said that would help the department’s problems, but it wouldn’t solve them.
———
Information from: The Gazette,
