SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Residents in two West Springfield neighborhoods are fed up with violence. 

“Probably once every week or two we will hear gunshots but nothing ever came out of it.” Marion Maguire says. “We heard shots all the time. Most of the time seems like it’s down the street,’ 

Maguire lives near the area of Grant and Mount Vernon, where on Monday afternoon a man was shot in an alley. 

She says she wants a faster police response. 

“If something comes up and you have to call the police, it takes a long time to get here.” 

KOLR10 spoke to neighbors near the intersection of Forest and Calhoun where an 18-year-old was killed and another person was shot Monday night. 

Neighbors wouldn’t go on camera but say crime in the area has gotten worse over time and some have even considered moving. 

Springfield Police declined an interview Tuesday but issued this statement response. 

It reads, “In 2022, SPD’s average call response time for priority one calls was seven minutes and eight seconds, and priority two calls were 10 minutes and 21 seconds. Officers responded to the call for service regarding a shooting on Monday night, which was a priority one call, in four minutes and 40 seconds. If residents have any complaints about service response time, we would encourage them to reach out to us. 

When officers have downtime during their shifts, they are encouraged to do proactive patrols. However, due to call demand and staffing levels, officers may not have much downtime to be able to do those proactive patrols. We are currently recruiting for our two police academy classes in 2024. Anyone who is interested in becoming a police officer can get more information at GoSPD.com. 

Shots fired stats (2022 on left, 2023 on right): 

Jan 22: 29 calls; 3 injured              Jan 23: 19 calls; 3 injured 

Feb 22: 27 calls; 8 injured             Feb 23: 9 calls; 0 injured 

Mar 22: 33 calls; 5 injured            Mar 23: 21 calls; 6 injured 

Total: 89 calls; 16 injured               Total: 49 calls; 9 injured” 

The director of the Greene County 911 center says those shots fired calls have increased both in the city and county every year from 2014-2022. 

“I think that just the availability of guns and the number of people who own guns has gone up significantly as well. And I think that the data we see coincides with that.” Kris Inman said. 

Inman adds on average in 2022, the center receives just less than five shots fired calls a day, totaling just over 1,700 for the year. 

Inman stressed that that doesn’t indicate over 1,700 different events, but just calls. He says that means there could be multiple calls for any singular event. 

“Oftentimes we do get shots fired calls and there are multiple calls about that single shots fired call. Now, we would enter into the comments of the computer-aided dispatch event, and any other calls that we receive. But each individual call if they’re in the same location, it would result in just one call for officers to respond to.” Inman said.