I live in one of the newer subdivisions off Knox Butte Road. We've had continual car break-ins for months on end. The Albany Police Department doesn't respond to calls about this problem. If you've had something stolen from your car, they give you a case number but don't come out to the home.

If you're just reporting a car break-in with nothing missing, they do nothing. People have stopped reporting these crimes because nothing is being done. The problem is getting ridiculous.

Several times last week we were awakened during the night by the sound of car alarms. We were hit two weeks ago, and my across-the-street neighbor was hit twice in one week on two different cars.

We are within the Albany city limits. We pay unreasonable taxes, part of which is for police services. What will it take to get some help? Somebody getting hurt? We pay for your services, Albany PD. Where are you?

Chris Johnson, Albany

Ed Boyd, chief of police, responds: I really empathize with the gentleman and wish things were different. We simply don't have adequate resources to physically respond to every call we receive. We receive approximately 200 calls for service per day with only eight to 10 police officers on patrol duty on any given day shift. Person crimes (assaults, domestics, sex abuse and neglect), felony property crimes (burglaries, frauds) and similar calls will always take priority over car break-ins. It's an unfortunate sign of scarce resources, diminishing budgets and an increasing demand for service. Even though we don't physically respond to these calls, we do take a report, we do track the info and look for crime patterns in specific areas where we can do some proactive patrol; we enter identifiable stolen property into LEDS/NCIC based on the item taken, and we do occasionally make an arrest based on the phone reports, proactive patrols and recovered stolen property.