Reply #107: short of assigning one officer to guard each residence

[Romulus]

there will always be lag time between:

1) your awareness of there being a "problem"
2) your travel to a communications device
3) your operating the communications device
4) your establishing contact with the authorities through the device
5) your explaining the "problem" to the authorities
6) the authorities' analysis of your report
7) the authorities' establshing contact with a responding police unit
8) the authorities' explaining your "problem" to the responding police unit
9) the responding police unit's navigation time to your location
10) the responding police unit's on-scene analysis of the situation
11) the responding police unit's decision to act, and what that decision entails (i.e., wait for backup or slowly approach your location)