Police Are Minutes Away

If you call 911, how long will it take? | Featured Story | Wichita Eagle It is just a fact of life that it takes time to dispatch a 911 call, and then it takes time for an officer to drive to your location.

This story follows a call, on a "quiet night" that involved a disturbance with a weapon - the weapon being a tire iron.

On the tire-iron call, which wasn't considered an emergency call, officers checked out at the scene 8 minutes and 15 seconds after being dispatched.

The overall response time for the call — 9 1/2 minutes — was about average for Priority 1 calls in Wichita in 2008.

As response times go, that isn't bad. But a lot of bad things can still happen in 9+ minutes, even if the only "weapon" is a blunt object.

Now calling 911 is a fine thing, but you should have some idea of how you are going to spend that 9 minutes. In the worst case scenario, the police have the rest of your life to reach the scene of the crime.

I hope someone on the Left will comment about how I should spend those 9 minutes if I am faced with a rapist. What should a parent do faced with someone trying to abduct their child? I mean, are they going to tell me that cooperation with criminals will ensure everyone's safety?