It was a quiet afternoon in early March when Richmond County sheriff's Deputy Anthony Plyler heard the call. Another officer had stopped a vehicle believed to have been used in a burglary that day. Within four minutes, Plyler was on the scene even though he didn’t have an exact address.

Every day in Richmond County, officers and firefighters respond to calls for help. They know that how long it takes them to get there is very important to the person calling and sometimes can save lives or property.

“If you are having trouble breathing, four or five minutes is an eternity,” Augusta Fire Chief Christopher James said.

Both departments have studied and placed staff and equipment to get their response times as low as possible. But an Augusta Chronicle analysis of response times for both departments in 2018 – examining 129,947 calls for the sheriff's office and 19,556 calls for the fire department – found the times higher than national standards.

The average response time for the sheriff's office was 12.86 minutes, for the fire department 8.47 minutes. National standards for law enforcement is 11 minutes, according to the Josephson Institute Exemplary Policing Center, and six minutes in 90 percent of calls for fire departments, according to the National Fire Protection Association. The Augusta Fire Department data showed 23 percent of its response times were under six minutes.

Officials from each department say the times don't paint a complete picture.

The county's 911 system creates a delay between the call to 911 and the departments that get the alert, James said. The city is evaluating bids for a new system that should give first responders contemporaneous alerts.

James said his department keeps track of response times from the point it gets the 911 information to when they arrive at the scene for structure fires. Their number for building fires is 6.38 minutes, he said.

The sheriff's office doesn't track response times for what the department considers an emergency in such crimes as homicide, rape, armed robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and thefts.

And not all calls are emergencies. The cat stuck in a tree or someone cutting through the backyard a week ago are calls that will be responded to, but neither warrants an immediate response. The sheriff’s office wants everyone to report suspected crime, but the office has to prioritize calls, Maj. Steve Strickland said.

But if it’s a call that means an officer could prevent someone from getting hurt or stop a crime in progress, it is lights and sirens. For example, the night 27-year-old Anthony McGowen was gunned down at an East Boundary convenience store June 13, the first officer was on the scene in 2.07 minutes, according to data The Chronicle obtained through an open records request.

When the St. Mary Catholic Church rectory caught fire after being struck by lightning the night of June 27, firefighters were on the scene in 5.35 minutes, according to the data.

Both of those calls were true emergencies.

But the afternoon of March 4, as Plyler drove from Milledge Road to Wrightsboro Road, where an officer had stopped a vehicle suspected of being the getaway vehicle for a burglar, he noted what most residents do when a police car is behind them: They slow down. While frustrating, he couldn’t use the lights and sirens.

Plyler is assigned to zone 2, which stretches from Highland Park to 15th Street, and Gordon Highway to the Savannah River. He’s one of five officers assigned to zone 2, with two additional officers working a mid-shift for overlap.

The zones are set up based on number of calls, Strickland said. The idea is that deputies will get the same basic number of calls. Though Plyler’s zone is smaller than, say, zone 8, which stretches from Bobby Jones Expressway to the county’s southern border and from Peach Orchard Road to the Savannah River in south Augusta, the response times noted by officers are pretty equal. Zone 8 is larger, but the traffic isn’t a hindrance as it can be in the inner city, Strickland said.

The fire department has noted the traffic problems in the city, the chief said. Trying to get anywhere on Washington Road during rush hour is going to take time. The fire department has 19 stations in the county. Each has a 1½-mile territory surrounding the station, James said.

The department is planning to move stations to Gordon Highway at Powell Road outside Fort Gordon's Gate 1 because of several new developments. If there’s not a fire station within five miles of your home, your home insurance will be higher, James said.

At any time, a minimum of 82 fire suppression employees must be on the job, James said. For any structural fire, he wants to ensure there's 20 firefighters on the scene.

“It’s dangerous for employees not to send enough people on a call,” James said. When he started in the department about 30 years ago, seven might be sent to a fire, he said.

Determining where to put sheriff's deputies on patrol has become more data-driven in the department, Strickland said. There used to be shifts for north and south sides. Now there are eight zones with a lieutenant assigned to each shift. Officers and detectives pool and share information, Strickland said.

They pay close attention to the crime reports so that officers are deployed and interacting with the public in those areas where crimes – from murder to theft – occur, he said. They also know certain events create more potential for crime, – such as a sporting event where there will be a lot of vehicles parked in one area and a good probability crooks will try to break into them, Strickland said.

Officers like Plyler spend a lot of time on the move so people will see them and know they are nearby if needed, Plyler said. The idea is to be proactive and community oriented, which is one reason he carries a box of snacks in the trunk.

Plyler has several public housing complexes in his zone. “A lot of good people live in here, a lot of scared people,” he said as he cruised through Jennings Home, watching.

Because of that and because of the crime, Plyler regularly drives and walks through the complexes. Being able to be on the scene if something goes wrong or someone needs help is key, he said.

Even with the distance from one end of the zone to the other, Plyler said he can make it across in 10 or 15 minutes without lights and sirens.

INTERACTIVE: 2018 response times for homicides and structure fires

Blue Pins: Sheriff's Department

Red pins: Fire Department