Police chief Steve Williams on the current state of 911 response times in London, Ont.

Police response times for non-emergency calls have jumped from hours to days in some cases, having an impact on officer workload and their own mental health.

According to a memo presented by Chief Steve Williams to the London Police Services board last week, Code 1 calls, which are in-progress crimes or emergencies, were up 27 per cent this year over last. An additional 33,000 hours were logged by officers to deal with those calls.

Responses for Code 2 calls, which are crimes or issues not currently in progress, were up 96 per cent, leading to further delays in response times.

Chief Williams joined CBC London Morning to talk about with situation with host Rebecca Zandbergen on Monday:

You are getting more calls, and there are more complex calls. How is this playing out on the street?

Yeah, so this is something that's been building for some time, and we've tracked it over a number of years. But what we find now is that there's a significant delay in our response time. Sometimes that response time is measured in days, not hours. And we're fielding many complaints from the public about that, and we understand the frustration. But we also know that this manifests itself in our officers' morale and their workload, and their burnout levels have never been so high. So, it's of great concern to us, and we've taken the step of redeploying officers from specialty areas throughout the service back to the front line, where we hope we can alleviate that pressure. 

So, Code 1 calls have not been impacted. What does that mean for Code 2 and 3 calls?

Well, it's really interesting. Code 1 calls are our emergency calls. So typically, life or death; there could be a serious crime in progress, and we're very good at responding to those, and that's only because our officers drop what they're doing and respond. The public is very well-served in that respect. But the Code 2 and Code 3 calls, we triage all the calls for the different levels of urgency, and it's those ones that are suffering. So the Code 2 calls, which are urgent but not quite an emergency, are taking a long time to investigate, but also a long time to respond to. So there is the complexity to that that has built up over time, and I think there are different reasons for that. But that's driving our call.

They (officers) do an amazing job every single day, but it is demoralizing to come into work to see over 100 calls waiting and knowing that it's like shovelling sand off the beach here.- Chief Steve Williams

What are those reasons? 

Well, I think it's very complex, but we do know that we're seizing more weapons, more firearms. Our officers are seizing these on the front lines. They're seizing motor vehicles during traffic stops or suspicious person calls, things like that. So those calls in and of themselves take a long time to investigate. There are evidentiary concerns, firearms tracing and witnesses. And quite often, if there are victims involved, they're very time-consuming, labour-intensive and almost always involve more than one officer. 

How often is that happening? Do you have a number or a percentage? 

Well, we looked at our weapons, specifically our firearms seizures earlier this year, and they are more than double what they were last year. And then there are our sexual assault investigations. We overhauled our process and our own internal procedures to provide a more trauma-informed approach. One of the results of that is the investigations take longer because we spend time with the complainant, and we do a very thorough investigation. And the offshoot of that is it takes a longer period of time, so officers are tied up and can't respond to other calls. So I think there's a number of factors. 

One of the big questions is whether officers are the right people to respond to a mental health crisis or an addictions crisis. What can you tell us about that? 

We are the 24-7 service that responds when 911 is called, but we know that a lot of the code two calls are driven by underlying conditions like mental health, addiction, homelessness or more. But when somebody is in crisis and they're acting out, or somebody calls because they're concerned for their safety, it really requires a police response. So what we would like to see is the upstream sustained support for individuals who need the support that is provided absent of the police so that a 911 call doesn't come in.

A huge portion of the city's budget goes to the police. There's currently talk about moving some of that money to front end services so that they don't get to a place where they're calling 911. Do you support that sort of logic? 

I think we need to reimagine what the police are and recalibrate public expectations. So when the 911 calls come in, and I keep going back to this because we're not seeing those investments in the other areas, so in any way that it makes a difference for us. I know the city is making great efforts around housing, and we've got our mental health COAST team, and these investments are needed, but at the end of the day, we are still responding to the calls. And that is, as you said, expensive; it is a significant part of the municipal budget. We understand that. But if we are expected to meet these service demands and respond in 18 hours rather than days, then there is a price for that.

How worried are you about your officers and the community in this current state? 

To start with the community, they do deserve better. They deserve a more timely response, and our officers do, and I can't stress this enough, they do an amazing job every single day. But it is demoralizing to come into work to see over 100 calls waiting and knowing that it's like shovelling sand off the beach here. You feel like you're not making a difference. And it's not uncommon for an officer to go to a domestic violence call and then immediately followed by a weapons investigation, and then they're on to a break and enter to a family's home with no break in between. And yet, when they arrive there, they frequently receive complaints about how long it took them to respond. And they're expected to be composed and control their emotions. It takes its toll. And we all need time to process and recover between stressful incidents, and our officers are no exception

This interview has edited for clarity and brevity.

You can hear the interview with Chief Williams below: