Crime-ridden St Louis now more terrifying than ever with cops taking an average of 31 MINUTES to respond to a burglary

Published: 04:15, 24 July 2026 | Updated: 04:29, 24 July 2026 Cops in St Louis have blamed low officer numbers after researchers found the department took 31 minutes to respond to an average burglary last year. A new analysis shows that the St. Louis police's average response time has more than doubled for multiple categories in the past decade. A Brenton Park resident, Casey Crocker, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about an incident after hearing loud noises at his home.   After investigating the cause, Crocker spotted a stranger destroying the table, chairs and bench of his front porch. Crocker claimed he called 911 to notify the dispatcher at 7.55pm.  He continued to call after police didn't show, even claiming a dispatcher hung up on him.  At 9.25pm, after the suspect was long gone, two officers finally arrived to take a report. 'It was annoying and frustrating,' Crocker said to Post-Dispatch.  A new analysis shows that the St. Louis police's average response time has more than doubled for multiple categories in the past decade A recent account from Casey Crocker, where he waited nearly an hour and a half for police to respond to a 911 call, highlights a larger issue in St. Louis Police Department's average response time Police officials have acknowledged the issue as an example of a larger problem they are trying to solve. According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch analysis, average police response times to lower-priority calls have more than doubled.  This analysis shows St. Louis police response times increased from 18 minutes to more than 40. According to Post-Dispatch's report, 2015 showed police taking 12 minutes to arrive after someone dialed 911 for a 'priority 2' call.  This can include a domestic incident, a fight, a call for help or a burglar in a building. Last year, the average response time more than doubled to 31 minutes.  'Priority 3' calls such as burglaries, auto thefts, larcenies or motorists in need of an assist went from 20 minutes to 51. Police officials attributed this to multiple changes in policies and staffing.  The department requires two-car responses to more incidents to raise officer safety. Police officials have attributed longer response times to multiple changes in polices and staffing Between 2021 and 2025, the St. Louis Police Department lost nearly 300 sworn officers, bringing it down to 843, a record-low amount since 2007 Evidence collection time also takes longer due to an increase in doorbell and surveillance cameras. This has led to reports being finished slower and stopping officers from moving to their next call. Along with this, there have been large quantities of resignations and retirements at the department with not enough new hires filling in.  'We're frustrated, too,' police spokesman Mitch McCoy said. 'The reality is we don't have the people we need at this moment to address those priority-two calls.'  Between 2021 and 2025, the St. Louis Police Department lost nearly 300 sworn officers, bringing it down to 843. This is a record-low amount since 2007, according to FBI data.  Spokesperson McCoy told the Post-Dispatch that they are trying to fix the dwindling officer numbers through pay raises to officers and launching advertising campaigns. One example of last year's attempts includes diverting multiple 911 calls to desk officers who are able to take reports over the phone and leaving cops in the field free to respond to something else.  Police spokesperson Mitch McCoy told the Post-Dispatch that they are trying to fix the low officer count through raises and recruiting campaigns Similar trends of less officers and slower response times have shown in other departments across the United States  McCoy also noted that the response times to more urgent emergencies have remained relatively stable.  While the departments numbers have decreased, so has the city's reported crime, with a 16% drop in reported crime between 2024 and 2025. In 2019, the St. Louis Police Department responded to roughly 514,000 calls for service while responding to around 335,000 in 2015.  Similar trends of less officers and slower response times have shown in other departments across the United States. Between 2020 and 2024, total police staffing across the country declined by 5.5%, according to surveys collected by the Police Executive Research Forum.  An analysis from New Orleans-based crime data analyst Jeff Asher shows a surge in slower response times over the years. For example, in 2019, Nashville officers took about 38 minutes to respond to a call and 63 minutes in 2022. In New Orleans, response times went from roughly 51 minutes in 2019 to more than 146 in 2022. In New York, 18 minutes in 2019 turned into 43 by 2024. The Post-Dispatch analysis shows response times in many US cities improving, including in St. Louis, where lower-priority responses have decreased from 49 minutes in 2023 to 41.5 minutes in 2025.