Calling 911 is a fine thing to do, but even in those (rare) instances when you can call 911 BEFORE bad things happen, you may be waiting a while of police. In New Orleans… you will wait a while. New Orleanians on average wait over 1 hour for police to arrive | NOLA.com
Residents who called NOPD through September of this year had to wait an average 73 minutes for police to dispatch an officer their way. That’s nearly four times as long as it took in 2011, when the average dispatch time was 15 minutes, according to an analysis of NOPD calls for service by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and WVUE Fox 8 News.
The reason? Manpower shortages.
73 minutes is a long time. 15 minutes can be a long time if something bad is happening.
The other reason – dare I say excuse? – is the federal consent decree that New Orleans PD must now operate under. You see NOPD had a fairly colorful history that included some fairly rank practices. So of course if you want good policing you now have to wait for it.
357 Magnum Archive 