Police say T.O. response time averages under five minutes
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Emergency calls in the highest category- those involving people in dire need of attention- average a response time of under five minutes in Thousand Oaks.

According to Capt. Ron Nelson, spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, that response time is pretty good.

"We're doing a wonderful job of getting to these emergency calls in less than five minutes," Nelson said.

There were 5,200 calls determined by the dispatcher to be in the highest, or "emergency," category in 2006, he said.

Calls in the "immediate" category- -ust under "emergency"--numbered 15,762 and averaged less than a six-minute response, he said. The immediate category includes crimes in progress.

When Thousand Oaks Police Chief Dennis Carpenter was answering questions during last week's Feb. 6 City Council meeting, he mentioned one call for services that stood out in his report: a call in Dos Vientos that took 24 minutes to respond to.

After the meeting, Carpenter explained that was a "check for well-being call," a call from a friend or family member of someone who hadn't been heard from, asking the police make sure their loved one was okay. The caller had given the wrong address, so it took the deputy a few extra minutes to find the house.

"It turned out the person was fine," Carpenter said.

The City Council had asked the police if they thought it was necessary to add another roving police car to improve the 11-minute average response time to outlying areas of the city. The police didn't recommend such action at this time, but said they will continue to monitor and try to improve response times.

Challenges to police response include the narrowness of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and other roads, rush hour traffic, blocked streets, limited cross streets, speed bumps, gated communities and the hilly topography that creates curving road patterns.

The distance to the Ventura County Jail, where all women, people with medical issues and those who are violent must be taken, is also a factor in keeping police busy. That jail must also be used when the East County Jail is closed.

The City Council agreed 4-0 to maintain current police beats--areas officers are assigned to and where they patrol--and not add an additional roving car at this time. Councilmember Dennis Gillette was absent. Further review was scheduled to determine if adding a roving car in the fiscal year 2008-09 is feasible.

The number of calls for service has dropped in recent years. In 2003-05 there were about 41,000 calls for service per year and in 2006 there were about 37,000.

Actual calls for service may even be lower for 2006 because police officials claimed Amgen phones were automatically accidentally calling 911 for a period last year. The problem is said to have been remedied.