Report: Glendale Police Department not hitting response time goals

PHOENIX — The Glendale Police Department is not meeting its goal to respond to 90 percent of emergency calls on time, a report said.

The report from Citygate Associates was presented to the Glendale City Council on Tuesday.

The report said, last year, the department responded to life-threatening emergencies and in-progress crimes within five minutes only 74 percent of the time. That is well below the department’s goal to respond to 90 percent of top priority calls within five minutes.

The department also set the same response goal for other urgent calls — deemed priority two — but the report said officers arrived within five minutes of the call just 55 percent of the time in 2015.

“Some of this response time challenge can be attributed to the staffing reductions and the slowed growth of the department during the recession,” Sam Spiegel, senior associate with Citygate Associates, said.

The group behind the report recommended Glendale Police hire more staff. The firm said 14 sworn officer jobs are vacant and the department will lost two more officers to retirement by June 30.

Citygate said those vacancies should be filled as soon as possible. Glendale Police Chief Debora Black said the department wants to hire new cops, but recruiting can be tough.

“The negative effect of the negative narrative that our profession is experiencing over the last 18 months or so is having an effect on our recruitment,” she said.

Black said the department received about 1,200 applications in January 2014. Two years later, that number had fallen to 600.

That may still seem like a large number of prospective hires, but Black sai,d by the time applicants get through the physical test and interview process, only about 50 remain. She said six to eight may be hired out of that reduced pool.

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