MACON, Ga. — Nearly two years ago, 13WMAZ sat down with Major Brad Wolfe from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office to determine the average response time to 911 calls across the county.
He said it took responders 30 minutes for any kind of call, which he said was a "conservative estimate."
A call for help in one of the most vulnerable of moments led Jerome to call 911 when he found a stranger in mental distress outside Rose Hill Cemetery.
"The gentleman was sitting over here on the brick column and he had asked for help," Jerome said, pointing to the entrance gate. "I asked him and said 'Are you okay?' He walked back there ... we stopped him from doing what he was gonna do."
He says the answer didn't come as quickly as expected.
"When I call, you tell me the deputy's gonna be there," Jerome said. "But then 4 hours later, the deputy finally shows up ... All I called originally for was an ambulance to transport him to the hospital, to get him that mental health help that he needs."
Jerome claims he saw four deputy cars and two K-9 units drive by on Riverside Dr. while he was waiting for emergency services to arrive.
"A suicide should be just the same as the highest call," Jerome said. "There should not be any reason why it should be a long waiting response time on a 911 call, period. It should not take that long for a deputy to get out there."
On the other end of the line, Captain Wilton Collins says multiple people are taking these calls.
"We have a sheriff's office captain that actually runs the 911 center," Collins said. "That captain came from the road, so she understands exactly what it's like to be out here when calls come in."
He said a shooting is a high priority, while a burglary would be a low-priority call. They use Shotspotter to help prioritize where they respond.
"We're doing our best to make it where nobody should ever have to wait, but that's not the reality. The reality is we will get there," Collins said. "We will help you as much as we can. Your emergency, regardless of what we think of it, is our emergency."
The state's co-responder law aims to ensure mental health professionals are paired with law enforcement to help during mental health calls like the one with Jerome.
In January of 2023, we reported River Edge Behavioral Health clinicians would be on call if Bibb County deputies asked for help for someone in crisis.
Collins says they've seen improvements since taking over the 911 center in April 2022.
He says hiring and training people to handle different kinds of calls has allowed them to improve their time.
But for Jerome, emergencies like this cannot wait.
"The sheriff needs to crack down on response time," Jerome said. I think something needs to be done. Enough is enough."