MEMPHIS, Tenn. — If you called Memphis Police for help and they took a long-time police leadership says it's because of low staff and a spike in calls.
“2016 came along everything started changing, as far as MPD coming out; they don’t come out, longtime Frayser resident Arlenia Rogers said.
MPD says they are working to shorten the response times of crime calls across the city, a hot topic as there have been thousands of reported stolen cars and break-ins this year.
“We had some crime to go on here, Rogers said. “[A] young man got killed probably about six months ago, right up the street. Didn’t nobody, police didn’t come to like the next morning until they finally [saw] what happened.”
In the last update law enforcement said it takes about 23 minutes on average and in some areas, more than 30 minutes to respond to calls.
But Tuesday police told city leaders that the average time it takes for MPD to get to what they call level zero calls, which are ongoing threats, crimes, or the most urgent calls for crimes that are in progress is about 8 minutes (7.6 minutes exactly).
But for Rogers, who’s lived in Frayser for 17 years and says she’s seen firsthand the impact of crime in her area, less than 15 minutes from downtown Memphis, is not always dependable.
“If you call the police back in 2006 through up to 2016, they was here,” Rogers said. “And then we would have officers that used to ride the neighborhood, they used to ride the neighborhood every thirty minutes to an hour.
But Rogers says those patrols are no more, she estimates wait times can be as long as 40 minutes.
Department leaders say it’s becoming harder to respond rapidly as calls across the board have increased.
“The solution to call response time is more officers on the streets; is more officers available to respond to calls. Truly the more cars we have, we still have a challenge with cars,” assistant Police Chief Don Crowe said.
In all of July of 2022 there were 20,384 calls (this includes carjackings, shootings, assaults, and active break-ins). This year, in just the first ten days of July, calls for help have outpaced last year’s total...with MPD responding to 22,434 calls as of July 10.
For Arlenia, a consistent physical police presence in underserved communities should be the department's focus.
“You can hire over 100,000 cops and if don’t have none riding around to see what’s going on the community what are you hiring them for,” Rogers asked. “Not just over in Germantown, not just in Cordova, not Collierville. Just come out to Frayser, the south Memphis areas, come to where you know the crime is high rate.”