By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department response times to lower-priority 911 calls have more than doubled over the past decade, with average response to priority-two calls rising from 18 minutes to over 40 minutes.
- The department has lost nearly 300 sworn officers between 2021 and 2025, declining to 843 personnel—the lowest staffing level since 2007—while call volume dropped 35% from 514,000 in 2019 to 335,000 in 2025.
- Priority-two calls such as domestic incidents and fights averaged 12 minutes response time in 2015, increasing to 31 minutes in 2025; priority-three calls for burglary and theft rose from 20 minutes to 51 minutes.
- Dispatcher response time for priority-two calls increased from approximately 7 minutes in 2021 to 18 minutes in 2024, with staffing shortages preventing officer availability rather than dispatcher delay being the primary factor.
- Response times to the department’s most urgent emergencies—shootings, stabbings, and serious crashes—remained relatively stable, rising from 5.9 minutes to 6.7 minutes over the same period.
ST. LOUIS, MO — The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is grappling with substantially increased response times to lower-priority emergency calls, a consequence that department officials attribute primarily to record staffing shortages compounded by operational policy changes and increased evidence-gathering demands.
Analysis by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch documented significant deterioration in response metrics across call categories over a decade. Response time for priority-two calls—classified as domestic incidents, fights, calls for help, or burglars in occupied buildings—increased from approximately 12 minutes in 2015 to 31 minutes in 2025. Over the same period, response times doubled from roughly 18 minutes to over 40 minutes.
Priority-three calls, encompassing burglaries, motor vehicle thefts, larcenies, and motorist assistance, increased from 20 minutes to 51 minutes.
Police spokesman Mitch McCoy acknowledged staffing limitations directly impact response capability. “The reality is we don’t have the people we need at this moment to address those priority-two calls,” McCoy stated.
Response times to the department’s highest-priority emergencies—including shootings, stabbings, serious motor vehicle collisions, and officer-assistance calls—remained relatively stable, increasing from 5.9 minutes in 2015 to 6.7 minutes in 2025.
The St. Louis Police Department experienced significant personnel loss in recent years. Between 2021 and 2025, the department lost nearly 300 sworn officers, declining to 843 personnel representing the lowest staffing level since 2007, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data.
Concurrent with officer losses, call volume declined substantially. In 2019, the department responded to approximately 514,000 service calls. By 2025, that volume had decreased to around 335,000 calls annually. Despite lower call volume, crime statistics improved significantly during the same period: reported crime in the city decreased 16 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, with a 42 percent reduction since 2022. Homicides reached a 12-year low.
Dispatcher response delay represents a secondary factor in overall response time degradation. Average dispatcher response time for priority-two calls increased from approximately 7 minutes in 2021 to 18 minutes in 2024. According to McCoy, this delay occurs when multiple callers report identical incidents and when available officers are diverted to higher-priority calls, leaving no units to dispatch.
Department officials identified multiple contributing factors beyond staffing. The department implemented policy requiring two-vehicle response to more incidents for officer safety. Body camera evidence and residential surveillance footage require extended review time before incident documentation. Report writing and evidence processing consume greater time resources.
The department conducted officer recruitment initiatives including hiring blitzzes and salary increases. The department also launched early-stage advertising campaigns targeting recruitment from other police departments. In 2025, the department deferred 11,300 emergency calls to administrative personnel who accepted reports by telephone, allowing street officers to respond to more serious incidents.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based police research organization, stated that reduced staffing levels represent the primary constraint on response capability. “You do need more cops,” Wexler said.
Police Officers Association President Martin Garcia noted that severely reduced staffing prevents officers from maintaining community relationships or conducting thorough investigations. “They want to handle the call properly, and they want to do the best by the person calling 911,” Garcia stated.
Response time challenges are not unique to St. Louis. National police staffing declined 5.5 percent between 2020 and 2024, according to Police Executive Research Forum surveys. Large agencies with over 250 officers lost more than 6 percent of personnel during that period.
Comparative data from other major metropolitan areas showed similar deterioration. Nashville response times increased from approximately 38 minutes in 2019 to nearly 63 minutes by 2022. New Orleans saw increases from roughly 51 minutes to more than 146 minutes during the same period. New York City response times rose from 18 minutes in 2019 to 43 minutes by 2024.