New York, NY · 2022 to 2025

Urgent 911 calls in New York wait about the same across neighborhoods. Less urgent calls don't.

Critical calls wait under a minute longer in lower-income, majority-Black and majority-Hispanic neighborhoods than in the highest-income and majority-White ones. Less urgent calls wait 28% to 79% longer. Inside the same precinct, the gaps disappear.

By Martin Ngoh · Oct 8, 2026 · 3 min read

From 2022 through 2025, Critical 911 calls in New York, such as robberies and assaults with a weapon in progress, had a median wait of 5.0 minutes for the first officer in the lowest-income neighborhoods and 4.1 minutes in the highest-income ones. The median was 4.9 minutes in majority-Black neighborhoods, 5.0 in majority-Hispanic and 4.2 in majority-White. Each gap is under the 1-minute bar set before the analysis. For Serious calls the gaps were about 0.9 minutes.

Less urgent calls waited much longer in the same neighborhoods. For non-critical crimes in progress, such as harassment, the wait was 42% longer in the lowest-income neighborhoods than in the highest-income ones, and 28% and 40% longer in majority-Black and majority-Hispanic neighborhoods than in majority-White ones. For calls not about a crime in progress, such as disputes, alarms and ambulance cases, the gaps were 69%, 45% and 79%: 9 to 17 extra minutes.

Median wait for police, by neighborhood incomeMinutes from the call being entered to the first officer arriving, 2022 to 2025

Fifths of neighborhoods by median household income. Medians adjusted to the citywide mix of call types, hours and precinct workload. Source: NYPD Calls for Service, NYC Open Data; American Community Survey 2020 to 2024.

Median wait for police, by neighborhood makeupMinutes from the call being entered to the first officer arriving, 2022 to 2025

Neighborhoods where more than half of residents are in one group; Hispanic is any race, Black and White are non-Hispanic. Medians adjusted as above. Source: NYPD Calls for Service, NYC Open Data; American Community Survey 2020 to 2024.

How long 911 calls waited for police, by neighborhoodEach neighborhood's typical wait against the citywide typical wait for the same kind of call, calls from the public, 2022 to 2025.

33% or more shorter20 to 33% shorter10 to 20% shorterWithin 10%10 to 25% longer25 to 50% longer50% or more longerNo residents (parks, airports)

Wait from the call being entered to the first officer arriving, compared with the citywide median for the same call type. Source: NYPD Calls for Service, NYC Open Data; neighborhoods are 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas; income from the American Community Survey 2020 to 2024.

Show the numbers

The gaps sit between precincts

Comparing the same call types, at the same hours and precinct workload, barely moved the gaps. Neither did distance to the station house or officers assigned per call. Comparing neighborhoods inside the same precinct did: there, calls from lower-income, majority-Black and majority-Hispanic neighborhoods waited no longer than others. That locates the gaps between precincts. It does not explain them.

Does it hold?

The gaps for the lowest-income and majority-Hispanic neighborhoods held in 2022 and 2023, in 2024 and 2025, and in the first half of 2026, which was held back as a check. The gaps for majority-Black neighborhoods were smaller in 2026. Citywide, the times match the city's own 911 reports.

What this does not show

Why. The records show how long calls waited, not why.
Every call. About 40% of calls not about a crime in progress have no arrival time. Counting them as waiting until the call was closed makes the gaps larger, not smaller.
When the clock runs. From when a call taker enters the job, not when the phone rings, to when an officer marks arrival.
Who called. Neighborhoods are grouped by who lives there. The data says nothing about who made a call.
Which events. The data does not mark which events started with a call. Officer-initiated work, ShotSpotter alerts and calls where an officer was already there were set aside by rule.