Chief Steve Watson illustrates via screenshot why it may take an officer a while to respond to certain calls

People sometimes ask us why it took so long for an officer to respond to a situation they reported such as an abandoned motorhome, cold petty theft report, or transients loitering.

Attached is a screenshot from EPD's Computer Aided Dispatch system this morning that serves as a snapshot of an average day in the life of a "day watch" (7AM - 5 PM) Eureka Police Department patrol officer.  You'll notice there are 17 different police calls for service either pending or already assigned to officers to handle.  There were only 4 officers and a sergeant on duty assigned to specifically cover Patrol at the time.

Eureka has about 28,000 residents, but our daytime service population has been estimated at approximately 55,000 people. Between 2014 - 2016, EPD officers responded on average to between 51,000+ - 63,000+ calls for service a year (recorded CFS have actually trended downward the past two years due in part to some procedural and staffing changes).

So, rest assured your EPD officers are working hard for you, and I greatly appreciate their efforts as I'm sure you do to!

To help with issues and response times, Chief Watson is working on filling vacant positions, including working on the procedure and approval to recruit and hire two community officers.