Secondly, for patrol officers generally, there’s a “lack of ability or time to do proactive traffic work, based on call volume,” he said.

The number of calls for police service actually went down slightly in 2018 compared with the prior year, to 211,507, according to the annual report, and the 24,887 offenses known to police in 2018 was up only slightly over 2017.

But Chaney Austin pointed to the amount of time police are spending on what’s known as “priority, or emergency, calls only” status.

Priority calls are shootings, special events or other incidents requiring a heavy police response. During these periods, the Dane County 911 center will not immediately send officers to calls that don’t present an imminent threat — such as noise complaints or minor thefts.

According to less formal records kept by police from May 2016 through 2017, officers were placed on priority-calls-only status an average of 25 hours a month, not including two instances in 2016 when police response was restricted but records don’t make clear for how long.