Question

_____ is measured from the time a call for service is received by a dispatcher until an officer arrives on the scene.

Option 1: Response Time
Option 2: Incident Duration
Option 3: Dispatch Interval
Option 4: Arrival Window

Answer 1

The term 'Response Time' is measured from when a 911 call is received by a dispatcher to when an officer arrives on scene. For a call center with an average of one call every two minutes, the average time between successive calls is two minutes.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer to the student's question is Option 1: Response Time.

Response Time is typically measured from the moment a call for service is received by a dispatcher to the time when an officer arrives on scene. The metrics for such operations are critical for efficient emergency service management and are a common focus for process improvement within emergency services.

Example Calculation of Response Time

If a 911 call center receives calls at an average rate of one call every two minutes, and this time follows an exponential distribution, the average time between calls is exactly the rate at which calls come in, because of the memoryless property of the exponential distribution. Thus, in this case, on average, two minutes elapsed between successive arrivals. When we calculate for five consecutive calls, we are essentially summing up 5 instances of the same average interval, which totals 10 minutes on average.