A report presented to the Edmonton Police Commission Thursday shows police response times are at an all-time low.

The response time target for Edmonton Police Services is less than seven minutes for priority one calls, less than 12 minutes for priority two calls, less than 17 minutes for priority three calls, less than 40 minutes for priority four calls and less than 180 minutes for priority five calls.

However, the report shows overall response time targets are being met 67.2 per cent of the time. The same period last year saw response time performance at 69.6 per cent. Response time peaked in 2011 at 85.7 per cent.

The report goes over 2016 second quarter response times and finds that high-priority calls are being responded to more quickly compared to the same time last year. Priority one to three calls include assault with a weapon in progress and property that is at immediate risk.

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The report shows there has been some improvement this year compared to 2015 but targets are still not being met:

2016 YTD response time performance (%) 2015 YTD response time performance (%) Volume compared to 2015 (%) Priority one calls 71.1 69.1 -11.3 Priority two calls 94.2 92.9 -44.8 Priority three calls 94.3 92.5 -17.3

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However, low-priority calls are seeing a different picture. Volumes are on the rise and response times are down from 2015. Priority four and five calls cover issues such as break and enters and vandalism that is no longer in progress.

2016 YTD response time performance (%) 2015 YTD response time performance (%) Volume compared to 2015 (%) Priority four calls 69.2 70.3 +9.8 Priority five calls 60.7 64.6 +1.8

Chad Tawfik, the superintendent for the Office of Strategy Management Division at EPS, urges residents to have patience.

“It may take us longer to get to those lower-priority calls but we will be responding,” he said.

Tawfik said managing public expectations of the police service is the reality.

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“Police have high expectations as they should. We’re just dealing with the influx of calls that we’ve seen over the last few years increasing.” Tweet This

Tawfik said officers often hear frustrations from residents about their response times.

“It’s not easy to explain that. When you have to go to a call and it’s been an extended period of time, people obviously expect that to be our priority. It’s not easy but we just have to explain there are a lot of complex things happening in this city as far as the types of crime,” he said. Tweet This

Tawfik said the solution to hitting response time targets may be a combination of reallocating resources and new initiatives such as online crime reporting.

According to numbers from 2015, high-priority calls made up 9.5 per cent of call volume whereas low-priority calls made up 90.7 per cent of calls.

Dispatch call volumes are also on the rise. Edmonton police recorded an additional 2,959 calls compared to the same time last year, a growth of 3.7 per cent.