But then her husband found her new address. “He would come over, banging on the door, yelling threats,” he said. “This happened a few times, and each time, it took about 45 minutes for the Oakland Police Department to get there.”

Francis was struck by how long it took the Police to arrive. He interviewed police officers, many of whom told him how catastrophically understaffed their departments were. He also learned that a police report can take 45 minutes to write, causing police to spend about one third of their time writing reports or other documentation. “This number changed my life,” Francis said. “That’s an insane use of time.”