Oh, it's easily the dominant topic in city council meeting notes and articles written in what is left of newspaper reporting here in the city. But a hint, don't count on newspapers to report much these days, they are struggling to keep advertising dollars to stay afloat.
But the sparse news that does come out is that downtown response times (Central District) doubled in the last 3 years. During those years the PD has spent millions on a nationwide campaign to recruit officers from NYPD, Raleigh, Chicago, etc. With excellent results.
One politician claims that that was the big mistake and that the "imported" cops do not have knowledge of the area, or understanding of the locals. Implied is, "they sit around eating donuts...".
In that same 3 year period, ticketing for traffic offenses is up 36%. Parking ticketing is up a similar amount and jaywalking has become a heinous crime. Ticketing for jaywalking tripled in those 3 years.
I have a police scanner and at the time of the accidents (Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 3pm), I heard the call go out to respond, but other than that it sounded like responses were "a tourist reporting lost/stolen wallet, a group of teens in front of McDs harassing customers' and that was about it. Not exactly bedlam.
Oh yeah for sure, I was a tenured physics professor and we were characterized by what might seem to the sensitive type person, "an over-generalization". But we actually were "untouchable, over-paid, past our use-by date...."
Sometimes things really are what they appear to be, no matter how sensitive some may be to the exposing of such.
A few comments.
Does your city or your local newspapers put out any response-time information to help you figure out if it's slowing down? Otherwise you're depending on anecdotal information instead of facts.
Is there any way to tell what else is happening when the accident occurs? As another poster noted, if all available police are responding to a higher-priority call when the accident happens then it's going to take a while for a response.
On Oahu a call to 911 is met with the response "Fire, police, or ambulance?" So if there was a serious injury then it wouldn't depend on police response time. Perhaps there's a similar system in your city.
Gosh, imagine if someone characterized whatever occupation you used to proudly pursue in such a manner. Wouldn't that seem like an offensive over-generalization?
