LIGHTS, SIREN GET LAPD THERE FASTER.

Byline: Ryan Oliver Staff Writer

Los Angeles police reported on Monday a 34 percent drop in response time for emergency calls, just one week after revamping dispatch procedures to allow officers to respond to more emergency calls with their lights and sirens.

In the San Fernando Valley, the changes shaved almost four minutes from the response times from the previous week, going from 11.4 minutes to 7.6. Citywide, the average went from 10.6 minutes to 7.

``This is very early, but we like what we see so far,'' said LAPD Cmdr. Michel Moore. ``We're cautious, but we're cautiously pleased.''

Previously, emergency calls were dispatched on a two-tier system: High-priority calls, designated as Code 3, required a light and siren; other emergency calls, labeled Code 2-high, did not get a light and siren and forced officers to obey all the traffic laws.

The LAPD has eliminated the Code 2-high designation and dispatchers are assigning most of those calls as Code 3. A smaller percentage of those Code 3 calls are being downgraded to Code 2, which is defined as ``urgent.''

Moore said the result has been a huge jump in the volume of the LAPD's Code 3 calls with officers responding to 2,710 in the past week vs an average of 400 to 500 in recent weeks.

Moore said the department is not expecting an increase in time it takes to get to Code 2 calls as a result of the new policy.

``I've stopped at a couple of stations and talked to the officers about this. Although there's some trepidation on their part about the number of Code 3 responses and if they'll be involved in some sort of traffic collision, most of the responses have been positive and that this is long overdue,'' said Deputy Chief Ron Bergmann, head of the LAPD's Valley Bureau.

In the first week, one officer was involved in a traffic collision, which was the fault of another motorist, he said.

Despite the dramatic improvements, Bergmann says there's still room to speed up its emergency response. It currently takes 2.3 minutes between the time a 911 dispatcher gets a call to the time the dispatcher relays it to the officer - that time is included in the overall response time figures.

He said the Communications Bureau is looking to whittle that down.

Bergmann said he pushed for these changes ever since he was a captain over the LAPD's Foothill Division, which has some of the longest response times in the department because of its size. But was turned down every time he brought it up until last year

``I think with Chief (William) Bratton, it was a different take,'' he said. ``Because I think in New York City, they go Code 3 a lot more than we do here.''

Ryan Oliver, [phone]

ryan.oliver(at)dailynews.com