Raleigh police response times double as city adds officers to boost staffing

Raleigh police are taking nearly twice as long to answer high-priority 911 calls as they did a decade ago, and the city has begun adding officers in an effort to catch up. The City Council adopted the fiscal 2027 budget at a June 8 work session, approving the first 23 of 69 planned new police positions over three years at a cost of $3.8 million.

The budget brings Raleigh closer to 818 sworn officer positions when the new fiscal year starts July 1. But the gap between budgeted slots and people actually on patrol remains wide. As of May 27, about 75 of the department’s 795 positions were vacant, leaving roughly 720 officers on the street. That was still below the 761 active officers Raleigh had in August 2016, even as the city’s population kept growing to 499,825 on July 1, 2024, and 506,306 on July 1, 2025, from 467,665 in the 2020 Census.

The staffing strain has made the response-time problem sharper. Police Chief Rico Boyce has made growth in sworn staffing a priority. Boyce began his law-enforcement career in 2000 in the 76th Police Academy, and he ultimately wants the department to reach 1,000 officers. Raleigh has not added police positions since 2016.

Recruiting remains a hurdle. Raleigh police applicants must meet background, medical and psychological standards and clear a reading comprehension test, physical fitness assessment, polygraph, background investigation, oral board, psychological exam, medical exam, drug screening and fingerprinting before they can join the department.

The city’s broader public-safety push is not limited to sworn officers. Raleigh police launched a 2026 Summer Action Plan from June 1 through Aug. 31, and the city has also maintained a hospitality district in downtown Raleigh since May 2025 to increase visibility and enforcement around high-traffic areas, including the GoRaleigh bus station. On the dispatch side, the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center answers emergency and non-emergency calls around the clock, handles more than 500,000 calls each year, has been CALEA accredited since November 2007, and was ranked in February 2026 as the 39th best accredited emergency fire dispatch center and 114th emergency medical dispatch center.