It now takes about half as much time for police dispatchers to answer 911 calls as it did during recent peaks just a couple years ago, officials with the Anchorage Police Department said this week.
Wait times began to rise after 2015 and peaked in late 2018 and mid-2019, when it took up to 21 seconds on average for dispatchers to answer incoming 911 calls, according to data provided by the department. The average wait time has steadily decreased since last summer and was about 8.6 seconds in February, according to APD.
“If you’re the citizen and someone’s having a heart attack in front of you, or your baby’s not breathing, or your house is on fire, you expect to call 911 and have a voice on the other end of the phone. ... The quicker we can answer the call, the quicker we get the help that people need,” said Amy Foraker, the department’s dispatch manager.