LA In A Minute podcast host says he was on hold with 911 for an hour after home break-in
LA In a Minute host on hold with 911 for an hour after break-in
Evan Lovett, the host of the popular LA In a Minute podcast and a frequent guest on FOX 11, shared his frustrations on social media when he was left on hold with 911 for nearly an hour after thieves broke into his home.
LOS ANGELES - The host of a popular local podcast had a break-in at his family's home this week, with thieves making off with dozens of valuables.
But, what's drawing more attention is the fact that he said he was on hold with 911 for nearly an hour until police were sent to his house.
What we know:
Evan Lovett is the host of the LA In a Minute podcast, and a regular guest on FOX 11. Lovett posted a video on his social media on Saturday to talk about the break-in.
Lovett said that he had just come home from his son's baseball game with his family on Friday, when they found a glass door had been smashed in — they had been robbed.
According to Lovett, the thieves got away with a safe that had mementos from his late father, and jewelry from relatives.
Lovett seemed especially frustrated with the fact that he was on hold with 911 for nearly an hour, 59 minutes, until police were dispatched to his house.
What they're saying:
"This s*** is unnerving," Lovett said in the post. "Luckily, it's just a home burglary. It wasn't somebody dying or choking, that was shot or something, but what happens if it was a real-time emergency?"
Lovett made it a point to mention that when officers did eventually get to his house, they were "very nice," but mentioned that they said they were severely understaffed.
"They get 7,500 to 10,000 calls per day. So with a staff of, I want to say under three dozen, that's a very overwhelming volume. And that's 24 hours a day," Lovett said on FOX 11.
Podcast host discusses LA dispatch wait times
Podcast host Evan Lovett spoke to FOX 11 about the issue with LA dispatch wait times after he was put on hold for 59 minutes following a break-in.
Lovett also said he told dispatch the emergency was not life or death and that 911 acknowledged the call within two minutes. They then transferred him to police, where he was put on hold for nearly an hour.
"But to be fully honest, in retrospect, 58 minutes for something that's not a real time life or death emergency is sufficient. It can be improved," he added.
The other side:
In a statement to FOX 11, Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who represents Lovett's area, said her office had been in contact with Lovett and called 911 wait times "unacceptably long right now." Raman blamed the delays on a lack of hiring.
LA Mayor Karen Bass also issued a statement saying her office is "looking into what happened last night," adding that the city hired 100 more 911 dispatchers in 2024, and is working to hire more.
By the numbers:
In October, the LAPD reported that hiring was down 8% in the last two years, despite an increase in applications. The department said bottlenecks in background checks are delaying the hiring process.
The Source: Information in this story is from a March 1 post on the LA In a Minute X account, statements from Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman and Mayor Karen Bass sent to FOX 11 on March 1, and previous FOX 11 reports.