The Asheville Police Department in North Carolina announced that its officers will not respond to certain crimes so that they can be better equipped at answering more serious emergency calls due to a "staffing crisis."
Calls that APD will no longer respond to include instances where the suspect is not known, harassment through phone calls, life is not in danger unless it is related to stalking or domestic violence, identity theft and trespassing reports when there will not be any pressed charges.
The police department has lost 84 officers since the beginning of 2020, the department said. APD boasted 238 sworn officers as of 2019, according to the Police Executive Research Forum.
Since 1/1/20 APD has lost 84 officers. As a result, several changes in officer response will go into effect immediately to improve response times for emergency calls made to 911. #avlnews@WLOS_13 @asheville @wyffnews4 @WSPA7 @foxcarolinanews @SpecNews1MTN @newsradio570 pic.twitter.com/WBiSZOifFB
— Asheville Police (@AshevillePolice) June 2, 2021
Asheville Police Chief David Zack said in a Tuesday interview, according to ABC11:
Our detective unit right now is completely gassed out with the volume of serious investigations that they have to address. And we will have to triage those. Those officers are having to work extremely long hours.
The APD's loss of 84 police officers is a significant loss of staff as they now only employ 219 officers out of the 300 that they have the budget for, according to the Citizen Times.
Police ask that victims of a crime use the Police to Citizen online reporting tool to file a report instead of calling 911. The alternative for those without internet access can call (828) 252-1110 to have an officer respond when they are available.