City Council to hear options to improve BPD response times to 'serious concern for life' calls

Mar. 4—Bakersfield Police Chief Greg Terry addressed the public's outcry over officers' response times to "serious concern for life" calls and vowed to explore alternatives to sending officers to less urgent incidents.

Response to some high priority calls averaged 36 minutes from 2021 to 2022.

The chief's comments came during a meeting of the Bakersfield City Council's Safe & Healthy Neighborhood Committee on Thursday, when the chief also said there isn't enough staff to deal with hundreds of residents' reports of incidents made by telephone or online. Those statements languish without enough people to review each report.

"Right now ... our service model in response to the community is very low and very poor," Terry said of telephonic and online reports accumulating in their system.

Committee members voted unanimously for the full City Council to hear Terry's presentation and alternative response methods presented by city staff at an upcoming council meeting. Discussions Thursday primarily centered on the role of police officers — and how that may change in Bakersfield.

Dispatchers receive nine types of priority calls, Terry explained. A dispatcher learns a person's name, type of incident and location before determining the level of priority.

First priority calls include a death or serious injury from a life-threatening violent crime. That requires immediate dispatch, according to the presentation given to council members Patty Gray of Ward 6, Manpreet Kaur of Ward 7 and Eric Arias of Ward 1.

Response times for priority one calls increased in the north and south areas of Bakersfield by 8 percent and 16 percent, respectively, from 2021 to 2022. They decreased in central, hill, metro and valley areas of Bakersfield by 3 percent, 2 percent, 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, during the same time period, according to Terry's presentation.

Police took an average of seven minutes, 43 seconds, in 2021 and eight minutes, six seconds, in 2022 to arrive at a priority one call in north Bakersfield. They took an average of eight minutes, 30 seconds, in 2021 and eight minutes, 43 seconds, in 2022 to arrive to south Bakersfield calls, the presentation noted.

The median time citywide to arrive at a homicide, in-progress domestic violence incident, stabbing or in-progress robbery was about six minutes, 56 seconds, from 2021 to 2022, Terry said.

The Bakersfield Police Department's goal is to respond to all priority one calls in under seven minutes, the chief added.

City staff agreed the department should focus on improving response to priority two calls, which include serious concerns for life or threat of property damage. Examples include an in-progress vehicle burglary or a suspicious person staking out a business or residence who is perceived to be a threat. Police averaged about 36 minutes to respond to these calls from 2021 to 2022, the chief said.

"They are not what we would want them to be and certainly what our community needs them to be," Terry said of priority two response times.

North, south and hill areas of Bakersfield saw a 1 percent, 4 percent and 5 percent increase in response times from 2021 to 2022, according to the BPD's presentation about priority two calls. To arrive at such an incident in 2022, police took 28 minutes, 50 seconds, in north Bakersfield; 41 minutes, nine seconds, to arrive in south areas; and 45 minutes, 32 seconds, in the hill portions of the city.

Central, metro and valley areas of Bakersfield had a 12 percent, 20 percent and 13 percent decrease in response times from 2021 to 2022 for priority two calls, the presentation noted.

The chief did not discuss arrival times of officers going to calls ranked from priorities three to nine during Thursday's meeting.

The BPD denotes north, south and central areas as west of Highway 99, Terry said. Roughly Rosedale Highway to near White Lane makes up the central section, said BPD Assistant Chief Brent Stratton.

Hill, metro and valley areas lie east of Highway 99, Stratton said. The hill zone goes from the northernmost part of Bakersfield until around 24th Street, Stratton added. From 24th Street until about White Lane makes up the metro zone of Bakersfield, he noted.

Terry said the city's expansion in north and south areas — both west of Highway 99 — has caused longer traveling time for police.

Staff vacancies may also lead to increases in response times, the chief added. Last week, there were 12 to 13 vacancies in BPD's communications center with 45 total dispatchers, Terry said.

"It is a very difficult position to fill," Terry said, because of dispatchers' high-stress job.

The BPD's goal is to have 90 percent of 911 calls answered in 15 seconds and 95 percent of 911 calls within 20 seconds, Terry said. The department's communications center answered roughly 86.6 percent of calls in 15 seconds and 91.7 percent of calls by 20 seconds last year, which is an improvement over 2021.

In 2021, local dispatchers answered 79.1 percent of calls within 15 seconds and 85.7 percent of calls within 20 seconds, according to the presentation.

Recently adopted technology has allowed officers to cut down how long they spend on each incident, Terry said. The department is also weighing adopting an automated system transcribing reports made telephonically, the chief added.

A second mental health clinician was recently hired to work in the BPD's communications center and fields calls to reduce the need for officers to respond. That has been a success, funneling calls away from dispatchers, Terry said. A third hire is pending.

But questions remain about which incidents require an officer. Police officers trained to investigate crimes and reduce violence don't always need to use their skills at a noninjury collision, the chief said. People locked inside a gate at a business don't need a sworn officer, for example, and in other cases, a mental health expert is needed, Terry said.

Bakersfield City Manager Christian Clegg said City Council members could consider stopping police officers from responding to certain incidents or sending someone in lieu of an officer.

"There are some policy choices to be made there," Clegg said.

Ishani Desai can be reached at 661-395-7417. Follow her on Twitter: @_ishanidesai.