Average 911 wait times in Toronto down to 3 seconds following hiring blitz, police
CBC
The average time for a 911 caller to connect with an operator is down to three seconds so far this year, according to Toronto police.
That represents a massive, 94 per cent, decrease in waiting time compared to the same period last year.
The improvement comes after extensive reporting by CBC Toronto on long 911 wait times, sometimes for up to 10 minutes and as the police service has ramped up its hiring of 911 operators to improve service.
Coun. Shelley Carroll, chair of the Toronto Police Service Board, attributes the improvement to the force’s multi-year hiring plan, which has helped with operator retention.
“While it's mostly for uniformed officers on the ground, we are also increasing the number of operators so that those that come to work with us feel like staying working with us because they don't feel overwhelmed in Toronto's busy 911 operations,” she told CBC Toronto.
As part of the five-year hiring plan announced in late 2024, 90 new communications operators were hired in 2025, according to the Toronto Police Service (TPS). That resulted in an 89 per cent decrease in 911 wait times last December, compared to the same period in 2024.
The hiring plan has also resulted in a 17.5 per cent decrease in response times for priority calls in 2025, TPS spokesperson, Natalie Ramadan, wrote in an email.
Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association union, is thankful TPS and the city have made the effort to address chronic understaffing.
“We went through a period of really underinvesting in policing,” he told CBC Toronto. “We were down to about 4,700 police officers [but now] we’re back up to 5,500 to 5,600.”
Still, continued investment in hiring is needed to ensure response times keep improving, Campbell said.
“You need police officers in those cars answering the radio calls,” he said. “As long as the multi-year hiring plan continues to go forward, we're going to see results for the citizens of Toronto.”
John Sewell, coordinator with the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, is also celebrating the 911 wait time decrease.
"It's exactly what we should have done,” he told CBC Toronto. “[But] we should have done it a long time ago. The city auditor made the recommendation of hiring more staff in 2022. That's almost four years ago.”
But emergency response times still aren’t where he’d like to see them.
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