Venetians are familiar with hold times and busy signals when calling the LAPD at the Pacific Division desk. Most callers give up.
Note: This information is from Councilman Mike Bonin’s Neighborhoods First Newsletter.
This summer Councilman Bonin authored legislation asking for the Los Angeles Police Department to report to the City Council about excessive hold times on the department’s non-emergency phone number, 877-ASK-LAPD. Constituents calling the number to report non-emergencies such as loud parties, drinking in public or trespassing, have reportedly been forced to wait in excess of a half hour before speaking with a live person. The non-emergency number was created to free-up capacity when people call 9-1-1 during an emergency, but the system doesn’t work if people calling to report non-emergencies are not able to make reports because of excessive hold times.
As the Council considers ways to improve this system, we want to hear from you. Please share you experiences with 877-ASK-LAPD here.
[…] B { I called yesterday about property being stolen out of my garage. My neighbor called at 7:30 a.m. and they said they would send someone over. At 10:30 when no one had come, I called. I was on hold 25 minutes before someone got on the phone. They were supposedly going… } – 1112 2:04 PM […]
I called yesterday about property being stolen out of my garage. My neighbor called at 7:30 a.m. and they said they would send someone over. At 10:30 when no one had come, I called. I was on hold 25 minutes before someone got on the phone. They were supposedly going to send someone over at that point. No one came, neighbor waited until 2:00. No one called either of us. I emailed the Senior Lead Officer. No response. I saw on their Twitter feed that they had a big holiday party yesterday. Okay, but next year please leave some staff behind to actually do their jobs! Still no one has gotten back to either of us. Thousands of dollars of stolen property and we also had potential fingerprints and evidence which has gotten corrupted by being over 24 hours old…
The LAPD non-emergency phone line is unworkable.There is a very frequent periodic sound transmission for hearing-impaired, more like a sound weapon, really, it’s incredibly ear piercing and can no doubt damage your eardrums if you’re calling while on a cell phone with earbuds. One is left with the distinct impression that it is a purposeful itrritant to motivate the caller to give up and just go away. Which again, ia an unworkable solution, and perhaps dangerous, since what is a frustrated caller to do? Why not have a separate line for the hearing-impaired? No doubt they are acutely aware of thei special services.