The city also had eight dispatcher vacancies at the time. The agency’s force has shrunk every year since 2020, when the death of Sean Monterrosa at the hands of a Vallejo police officer sparked an explosion of protests over the department’s high rate of officer-involved shootings.Īs of March, over a third of all sworn positions in the police department were vacant: 46 of 132. The Vallejo Police Department’s staffing woes are no secret. Priority 3 calls, which do not require immediate aid, received an even slower response, according to Vallejo police. How, then, did Vallejo end up with an average dispatch time of almost an hour and a half? The main cause appears to be the way police handle Priority 2 and Priority 3 calls.Ĭalls designated as Priority 2 – defined as “calls where an urgent response is needed to prevent the call from escalating to Priority 1” – saw an average response time of over two hours last year: 121.89 minutes. So, dispatch time for Priority 1 calls was likely substantially less than 11 minutes. That number includes travel time as well as dispatch time. Vallejo police took an average of only 11.18 minutes to respond to these calls in 2022, according to the March presentation. Vallejo designates in-progress property crimes and crimes threatening people’s physical safety as “Priority 1” calls. While the grand jury report looked only at average response times, according to a March presentation by the Vallejo Police Department, the agency’s fastest responses are reserved for the most urgent service requests.

Not all calls are treated equally in Vallejo. Vallejo’s dispatch center is expected to be “up near capacity” in the near future, according to the response draft. Staff noted that the city has approved an 18% salary increase and is currently training five new dispatchers. “The high call volume was due to lack of staffing and an inability to attract and retain qualified individuals,” the city manager’s office wrote. City staff agree with jurors’ findings, according to a draft response included in the agenda packet for next Tuesday’s Vallejo City Council meeting.

Vallejo 911 dispatch