AUSTIN, Texas — Recent data shows the Austin Police Department (APD) has been improving its overall response time to crimes across the city.
On Monday, APD shared this information during a Public Safety Commission meeting.
According to the department's public safety quarterly report, law enforcement saw an average response time of 11 minutes and 39 seconds in March – faster than the rest of this year so far.
In comparison, the approximate response time in January was 12 minutes and 27 seconds. It was 11 minutes and 49 seconds in February.
Even still, APD's target time is 10 minutes and 44 seconds, so the department was still one minute and five seconds behind its overall goal.
Last month, call volumes also decreased to 4,826 compared to January and February, which both reached just more than 6,500 calls each month.
Although response times have improved, APD still continues to face staffing shortages. As of February, the Austin Police Association stated it has been looking to fill approximately 350 police officer positions.
Central Texas law enforcement agencies – including the Llano County Sherriff's Office, Georgetown Police Department, Travis County Sherriff's Department and San Marcos Police Department – are also finding it difficult to hire open positions for officers.
APD has also recently introduced a new system called the Resource Intensive Service Call, or RISC, to help respond to active crime scenes.
During Monday's meeting, an APD representative said the system works to help with "anything where you need to kind of watch over or guard a crime scene or interview multiple witnesses or wait for the detectives to respond to the scene because it's an involved scene."
As staffing issues continue, the next quarterly meeting should provide more insight into response time trends.