Good news in San Diego: wait times for 911 calls have greatly improved in the past few months.
They are now exceeding the national standard but that wasn't always the case.
Less than a year after promising to improve a troubled 911 system, the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) says they are now consistently meeting or exceeding the national standard.
The national standard is a wait time of 10 seconds or less, 90 percent of the time.
Back in April, only 67 percent of calls in San Diego met that standard.
But since November, that standard has been met.
Last spring, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said increased call wait times were the result of budget cuts, staffing shortages and an increase of non-emergency calls.
Local
SDPD Captain Jerry Hara told NBC 7, since then, among other things, they have increased dispatcher's base salaries, hired and retained new dispatchers and addressed staffing issues.
Now they would like to improve wait times on their non-emergency line.
“70 percent of the calls on the non-emergency line is answered in less than 2 minutes, but say we can get that down to even under a minute that would be great,” Hara said.
If you do call the non-emergency line, to report something like graffiti or a pothole, keep in mind that the busiest hours are from noon to 6 p.m., where wait times are the longest.
If you'd like to view San Diego's 911 monthly performance stats, you can find that information here.
