UNEXPECTEDLY! 911 callers in Portland face lengthy hold times amid efforts to defund the police.

According to The Oregonian, starting in the late spring, the riot-gripped city has faced a sharp increase in 911 calls placed on hold for two minutes or longer.

The national standard for 911 hold times is 15 to 20 seconds, but according to data from the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications obtained by The Oregonian, 574 of the 911 calls in the city had to wait on hold for more than five minutes in July. This number is more than double that of May, in which 221 calls waited that long, and is drastically more than the figure in March, when only eight 911 calls took more than five minutes to answer.

Bob Cozzie, director of Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications, said, “I think it’s horrible. There’s no other way to state it,” in regards to the dramatic jump in wait times. “We’re at a tipping point now. It’s become unmanageable,” he said, acknowledging the delay. “The system is broken.”

And not by accident.