10 June 2024, Steven Zimmerman – The following are from members of the community who contacted the Jerusalem Press after reading articles about the police response times.

Maria, in Northeast El Paso, sent the following:

There have been more than a couple times I have called 911. One was for someone in our backyard, another was for someone trying to get into our van, and the other was for someone who got into our house when we were at the mall.

Those first two calls no one ever showed up. No one even bothered to call us and tell us that they were not going to show up. We found out that on those days there were only like two police cars for the whole area. 

When the house was busted into, it took the police hours to show up. Someone finally came after midnight. No one took fingerprints, no one took pictures of anything. I know we are not going to get anything back. My husband said that after three months they still have not given our case to a detective!

After a few phone calls from the Jerusalem Press, we discovered that the break-in Maria was talking about was listed as ”information only.” The El Paso Police Department employs this tactic to avoid detectives having to do any real police work.

David, from West El Paso, writes:

I had come out of my home, early in the morning, to head off to UTEP. The windows on my car, two of them were smashed, and someone had rifled through my vehicle. The manager said to call the police, and I did. 

I put off attending lab as long as I could. I called the police again, and was told that a unit would be dispatched as soon as one was free. From that first call to the second, just over 4 hours had passed. 

When an officer finally showed up, almost 7 hours after I called, I was told that cases like these are almost never investigated, and property never recovered. 

What the hell are we paying for if they refuse to do their job?

This is another case where the report was marked as “”information only.”“

Carl, in the Lower Valley, sent the following:

We had problems with something being on our security cameras on night. We looked at the footage only to find out that there were a couple of people taking tools out of my shed. I called 911.

The person at 911 told me not to go out and confront them, but stay in my house. Oh, and I was to call back if anything changed. I watched these people take a lot of tools and load them into a car across the street from me. 

I called 911 again and was told that someone would be sent as soon as they got to me. I asked her what she meant and she told me that my call was not a high priority call. Someone in my backyard, in my shed, stealing my things while I’mI’m on the phone with 911 and that is not a priority call.

The next day we bought two guns. We can only count on us to keep us safe.

And about a month later, I called the police to see who was on my case. I wasn’twasn’t assigned to anyone yet. I was calling because I found two of my tools on sale at the pawnshop near Walmart. Cops and the pawnshop were sorry, but there was nothing they could do.

I had a similar problem when my car was broken into at a Walmart parking lot. At the time, I was writing for the El Paso Herald-Post. My wife, sister and I went to Walmart. I locked the car, and everything we had purchased at BestBuy was hidden.

Not even fifteen minutes later, we came out only to discover someone had broken into the car. I called the police and was advised to go home and wait for someone to talk to me. After a couple of hours of waiting, I called the dispatch number. I indicated that I had been waiting for just over two hours, which was unacceptable. Two offers were then sent to my house.

The officers then called out a crime scene unit to take prints off the car while they took a report and an inventory of what was taken; I gave them a copy of the receipt from BestBuy.

Two weeks later, I called Mission Valley and discovered that a detective had yet to be assigned to the case. A few days later, I got a call from a detective on the Westside of El Paso saying he was on the case and asked if I could provide him with any additional information.

I told the detective that Apple was awaiting his call because whoever broke into my car had activated my purchased Apple products. Apple was waiting for him to give them a call.

Here was a case where Apple could provide the address for the stolen products, but the detective couldn’t care less. The detective told me he would wait to see if the items were pawned.

There are good officers in EPPD, but they are outnumbered by those who are only there to do as little work as possible while collecting a check—no different than most Americans on Welfare.

We need change within EPPD.