It’s been a traumatic year for Syracuse resident James Doyle.

“Our business [has been] broken into twice, packages being stolen off of our front porch, I’ve had our car stolen once, I had my bike stolen out of my garage," Doyle said.

As he starts his day, Doyle can’t help but think about each incident and the fact that he doesn’t feel safe.  

“You feel hopeless, you feel frustrated, you feel violated to know that someone has gone into my garage, to know that someone has gone into my car with the intent of taking whatever they can because they can," he said.

Doyle says he’s reached out to the police but nothing has happened. Being a husband and father his biggest concern is if a situation escalates.

“Your mind plays all sorts of worst case scenarios and any one of them isolated by themselves probably not a big deal but it just compounds with each event like this is getting worse and something worse could happen," said Doyle.

It’s hard to enjoy life.

“The minute we walk out the door it feels like we’re entering into a foreign land," he said. "It feels like we’re entering almost a battle zone, that we have to wonder if we’re gonna survive."

Police departments across New York state continue to navigate the nationwide officer shortage. According to Jason Tom, sergeant of recruitment in the Syracuse Police Department, as officers leave the calls keep coming.

"They’re priority one, priority two, priority three [calls]," he said. "And there’s a massive call volume that’s occurring. So we have officers that are responding to calls and they’re still active on one call and another priority one call will come out and that has immediately be dispatched."

According to the 2021 International Association of Chiefs of Police survey, 78% of agencies reported they’re having trouble recruiting qualified candidates. The Syracuse Police Department is changing things up.

“We’ve tried to modernize our recruitment efforts by using technology," Tom said. We’ve been promoting a lot of our department with the use of our new website as well as social media."

Doyle doesn’t want more people to experience what he has.

“I try to express to our local Facebook community page about what’s going on because if I can make my corner safer for my family then that’s gonna be part of making this street safer for everyone else who lives on the street," he said.

But enough is enough.

"I love Syracuse so much but at some point you start to add up the pros and the cons and begin to wonder if it’s worth it," he said.