The area where I live is patrolled by precinct constables. We were told their staff has been cut by 60%. We were told not to expect immediate response.
In this day and age you’d best be armed.
What’s a precinct constable? You don’t have cops?
Your homepage shows a Vermont flag ..... welcome to Texas? ;)
I live in Houston, and a couple of years ago we had problems in the vicinity with extra-patrol agreements some neighborhoods made with their precinct constables and commissioners.
There was a performance problem (the constables were just too thinly spread), and the local media did a big story about it.
My own neighborhood decided not to participate because of the expense (plus, it's a civic-club and not a homeowners' association), and felt vindicated afterward. We have a citizen patrol and a watch program as well.
I have lived since 1993 in a rural setting. In N Calif, I knew that under the best of conditions, the Sheriff would NOT get to my house in less than 10 minutes—more like 20.
Being armed was the only sensible thing.
A known drug dealer lived on the back end of the dead end road, but because of the location of his residence, the cops could not get a good place to observe him for prosecution. His customers were up and down the road every Friday & Saturday—when they got paid.
One pair of his customers—mother/daughter narrowly missed part of my road fencing, hit a large boulder & shot into fencing that was not on the road. Did about $2000 worth of damage. They were fighting over the drugs which the drug dealer had just sold them. The daughter had just gotten out of ‘rehab’ less tham 30 hours earlier. She totaled the used car that ‘Grandma & Grandpa had just bought her to celebrate her ‘rehab’. They came to the scene & were not happy!!
The drug dealer himself came onto my property once in broad daylight. He ‘wanted to talk to me’. I held my ground with my shotgun. Called the Sheriff himself just after I got him to leave my property. Told Sheriff what had happened & asked what would have happened to me if I shot this bum OUTSIDE of my house. He basically told me they would celebrate his demise.
One often has to take care of themselves. I intend to do just that.