Captain's Message
Chris Canning
Hello Richmond District Residents and Merchants,
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) runs the 9-1-1 dispatch center, where a call taker receives each call and sends it to a dispatcher. If the call requires a police response, the dispatcher assigns an available unit to respond. If there are no units available, the call waits in a queue. The officers report to the dispatcher when they arrive on-scene.
DEM uses a hierarchy to designate the urgency and priority of calls requiring a police response. The examples below are generalized; the dispatcher may assign a different priority based on cues during the call or other context:
Priority A: Live gun shots, multi-car pile-up, suicide attempt, fight with weapons, in-progress burglary
Priority B: Burglary - perpetrator no longer on-scene, verbal fight, well-being check
Priority C: Loitering, parking violation, noise complaint
Other factors that may impact response time include call volume to 9-1-1, the proportion routed to the SFPD, resident and daytime population, traffic congestion, road systems, dispatcher staffing, police staffing, and more. Learn more here.
- Captain Chris Canning
