Rachel Carr began to lose Hope after reaching the five -hour mark on hold with the non -emergency line of the Toronto Police, but could not hang to hang since he had already waited for so long.
“I still had a ray of hope that perhaps they would eventually collect, but unfortunately it didn’t happen,” he said.
On the other hand, just when the call entered the 12th hour, Carr was disconnected, which means that she could not inform that her husband’s vehicles and her husband had been very full outside her home, which resulted in what she estimates is around $ 8,000 in damages.
“It seems quite alarming,” he said.
“For me in my life, will it make a big difference in this case? No. But at another time, could I make a big difference? Absolutely could.”
CBC Toronto has widely informed in long waiting times 911, Sometimes for up to 10 minutesHe responded in the same call center as non -emergency calls and for the same people. CBC Toronto investigations have previously found 911 waiting times They have worsened continuously In recent years in the midst of personnel problems, but the police have said they have been Improvement in recent months.
This month, the call center has been scrutinized again when the city reviews a 911 call in which A person who called waited for almost seven minutes While a teenager was dying from a gunshot wound.
The Toronto Police spokeswoman, Nadine Ramadan, says that the service recognizes that no one should wait hours in the non -emergency line and how frustrating it can be.
“The reported situation and waiting time do not reflect the usual average in our non -emergency line. We are reviewing this case to determine the cause and ensure that each call is addressed,” Ramadan said about Carr’s experience.
12 -hour
Carr says that he first tried to inform the online incident, but the Toronto Police website says that the theft or vandalism of more than $ 5,000 should be informed by calling the line that is not emergency.
Carr called for the first time the non -emergency line on June 16 and waited for an hour and 22 minutes, according to the call records reviewed by CBC Toronto. She says that she accidentally hung, so she called back and waited just over an hour before disconnecting.
Carr called back and asked the person at the switchboard when he would be less busy, and told him to try in the morning.
On June 17, Carr called at 8:41 am and waited to talk to someone from the Communications Center for 12 hours, the call record show. She says the line was disconnected and never talked to anyone.
It was not until after CBC contacted Toronto police to ask about Carr’s case that the police contacted her and sent an officer to her home to take a vandalism report. A police spokesman asked CBC Toronto to share Carr’s phone number, saying that he would help the call center to find the situation, which Carr agreed.
While Carr says that he appreciates that the police have continued, he is still worried, the long waiting times are deterring people to inform crimes such as car theft, vandalism and hate crimes, which could sigh data used to make police and policies decisions.
“If it is happening to me, there is no way that it is not happening to other people and there would really be an impact in terms of statistics,” Carr said.
‘Simply incredible’
Max Arnold also faced a long wait when he called at the beginning of this month to inform a driving infraction that witnessed in the center of Toronto.
The call records show that Arnold called the non -emergency line just before 6 pm on June 12 and waited a little more than 20 minutes. He called a few hours later and waited another 30 minutes. Arnold called the next morning and was waiting for two hours before he could talk to someone from the communications center.
Arnold says he was shocked just the waiting time of 20 minutes.
“The idea of waiting 20 minutes to talk to the police was incredible. It was unfathomable for the standards of when I communicate previously to the police that was not emergency in other circumstances,” he said.
“I can see absolutely why some people would say: ‘Do you know what? If informing the police take at least two hours of my time, it is not worth my time or effort'”.
Police who work to reduce waiting times
The Toronto Police did not answer a question about the concerns that the crimes are not informed of long waiting times.
Ramadan reiterated that communications operators responded both to 911 and non -emergency calls, and said the police service received 279,998 non -emerging calls so far this year and more than 30,000 only this month.
In all 2024, there were 652,244 calls of non -emergency, they say, according to the annual TPS report. The annual average waiting time for non -emergency calls in 2025 is four minutes and 53 seconds and the average wait of June was six minutes and 26 seconds, according to Ramadan.
“When there is an increase in emergency calls, resources are prioritized to ensure that these calls are answered first, which can affect waiting times in the non -emergency line,” he said.
The Ramadan also said that the accidental calls of 911 continue with tension in the system, noting that last year 27 percent of the 911 calls came from pocket dials and erroneous diaities.
Toronto General Auditor published a report In 2022 doing 26 recommendations To improve call response times within the city call center, with an approach in increasing personnel levels.
Ramadan says that the service is hiring three classes of 90 new communications operators this year and also pointed out the implementation of A new 911 system aimed at improving response times in May.
Even so, John Sewell, former mayor of Toronto and coordinator of the Coalition of Responsibility of the Toronto Police, who works to make the police more responsible before the public, says that more improvement is needed.
“They had a [auditor general’s] Report regarding three years ago saying that you must fix your act and here we are three years later and they have not fixed the 911 system, “he said.” They have allowed this non -emergency system to enter the same type of situation and this is not good enough. “
TPS aims to meet a non -legislated national call time standard for 911 calls: that all 911 calls are answered in 15 seconds. The most recent available data from January to May 2024 show, on average, 62 percent of the 911 call complied with the standard every month. Ramadan says there is no standard for non -emergency waiting times, but the goal is to respond as quickly as possible.
Sewell says that the public deserves his call to respond within a reasonable time.
“This is not a private business, where you have your options about where you can go. You have the police and that’s,” he said.
