North Carolina police department limits response to 911 calls due to 'staffing crisis'

The Asheville Police Department in North Carolina announced Wednesday that, going forward, the force will limit the amount and types of 911 calls that officers will be able to respond to because of the department's "staffing crisis."

"The Asheville Police Department (APD) has lost 84 officers since January 1, 2020. As a result of the staffing crisis, several changes in officer response will go into effect immediately in order to improve response times for emergency calls made to 9-1-1," the department wrote on Facebook.

Perhaps most alarmingly, the Asheville police will no longer be responding to "theft under 1,000 where there is no suspect information" or "theft from a vehicle where there is no suspect information." Also eyebrow-raising is that the police will no longer deal with "simple assaults that are reported after they have occurred."

These types crimes will possibly still be prosecuted and police will possibly still investigate them and lay charges. However, the public is warned that there may be "a significant delay in response" when dealing with these types of cases and are advised to call the police directly without using 911 or to use the online reporting tool to file the appropriate report. The Asheville City Council voted in September 2020 to decrease the city's police budget. Now, according to 24/7 Wall Street's study, Asheville has now entered into the top 10 percent of violent cities in the United States, having twice the rate of violent crime as the national average.