FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Fort Worth’s police chief told the City Council Thursday he’s working to reduce the response times of officers to high priority calls.

Chief Jeff Halstead says it’s currently over five minutes due in part to the amount of road construction.

He told the council’s budget workshop the reduction comes at a time when Fort Worth’s dramatic population growth is shrinking the number of officers per 1,000 residents.

“Yes, I agree with some of my critics that this is not a good sign, but we have to be realists,” he told the council.  “We have to understand how technology improvements allow our profession, especially here in Fort Worth, the ability to effectively do more with less.”

In the past, Halstead has made changes to his department to put more officers on patrol.