How Fort Hood’s response time stacks up to cities in the US.

When Lt General Mark A. Milley revealed the response time of Military Police to the shooter at Fort Hood as 15-20 minute at a news conference last night ,  it was a sit-up-straight-mouth-agape-moment. I wrote about it here last night. 

Fifteen MINUTES for an ACTIVE SHOOTER? Fifteen minutes to stop a man with a gun predating upon our finest and best trained warriors without anyone to stop him? Fifteen? 

Fort Hood, Texas is BIG. It’s a military reservation of about 45,000 people on 335 square miles “deep in the heart of Texas.”  It’s a vast area for MP’s to cover which is just another reason why the trained soldiers who call Fort Hood their temporary home should be able to carry weapons. 

Here’s how that 15-20  response time compares with other cities. When the times have a wide variance because police agencies lump high priority with low priority calls, I give you a range. 

Houston Code 1’s (of which an active shooter surely would be one): 3.5 to 5.5 minutes.

Fort Worth:  5 to 7:55.

Atlanta: An average of 11 minutes and 11 seconds.

Denver: 11 minutes

Tucson: 10.11

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 5:17 (for shootings)

The other salient fact is the average time a perpetrator stays in contact with a victim. The answer to that is about 75 seconds. 

The old saw goes: when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. It’s not their fault. They have to react, prioritize and respond. Until they get there, you’re on your own. And so are our soldiers. It’s a travesty.