Rookie Oakland Police Dispatchers May Be Causing Long Response Times
OAKLAND (KCBS) – The rapid growth of the Oakland Police Department could be partly to blame for what police admit was a slow response to two recent crimes in North Oakland. Rookie dispatchers may not have given the calls a high enough priority.
Recently, a family came home to find a seemingly disturbed man in their Rockridge home, he had a knife. They called police, but it took 90 minutes before officers came. The week before, police took more than an hour to respond to a break-in in Montclair.
Both neighborhoods are among the most exclusive in Oakland, with the median home price in the area just over $1 million, according multiple listing service data, compared to $640,000 for all of Oakland.
Victims are angry and frustrated. Capt. Darren Allison, the area commander, told KCBS that they have the right to be.
"An individual that was wielding a knife in somebody's house. My commitment is to get an officer there in the immediacy, because it is such a serious threat to human life," Allison said.
Allison posted on neighborhood site NextDoor.com, admitting the slow response and promising to do better. He said in both cases, the dispatchers didn't assign high enough priority to the calls, and that may be because there are so many newly-hired, rookie dispatchers.
The commander said he's working with the radio room and his watch commanders to get police to the scene more quickly.
"It's a very big concern for me and I'm committed to making sure that our response times in my area for serious crimes are reduced. It is something that we strive for," Allison said.
