This report investigates Detroit Police Department response times to emergency response calls. In 2019, the Detroit Police Department fell under scrutiny for allegedly responding faster to Priority 1 and Priority 2 emergency response calls (i.e., 911-calls) from more affluent areas of the city (Hunter, 2019; LeDuff 2019). In 2019 the Detroit Police Commissioner reported that the average response for Priority 1 calls was about 13 minutes and the average response time for Priority 2 was 33 minutes. (Hunter, 2019). This report uses publicly available data including from the City of Detroit’s ‘Detroit’s Open Data Portal’ as well as ‘Data Driven Detroit’ (see Bibliography for links), containing information about 911 calls placed in the City of Detroit since September 20, 2016, including response time. The primary dataset used in this report is the “911 Calls For Service” dataset available from Detroit's Open Data Portal. This dataset includes response times (including intake time, dispatch time, travel time, etc.,), call descriptions (including call codes and descriptions), priority level, and information about the location of the call (including address, district number, precinct number, block ID, zip code, neighborhood, latitude and longitude) and call time stamp, as well as incident ID, agency, and responding unit.
“911 Calls For Service.” Detroit's Open Data Portal, City of Detroit, data.detroitmi.gov/datasets/911-calls-for-service?geometry=-84.957%2C42.028%2C-81.886%2C42.738. Hunter, George. “Police Commissioner Wants Answers on Response Times.” The Detroit News, The Detroit News, 5 Feb. 2019, www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/02/04/detroit-police-response-times-questioned/2744186002/. “Income to Poverty Ratios in Michigan by Zip Code Tabulation Area, 2013.” D3's Open Data Portal Data Driven Detroit, 1 May 2015, portal.datadrivendetroit.org/datasets/a57ee4c6fdd24cd686b2305f2e5bf2a8_0. LeDuff, Charlie. “Part 4: Police Response Times Are Slowest in Detroit's Poorest Neighborhoods.” Deadline Detroit, 25 Jan. 2019, www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/21515/part_4_police_response_times_are_slowest_in_detroit_s_poorest_neighborhoods.