Understaffing is also an issue. Even if you assume that we’ve budgeted for an adequate number of sworn officers, we’re still short-handed. Of 2,036 officers in the budget, we’re 189 short.

I’m guessing that we have one of the better funded police departments in the country, and that our seven-minute response time to life-threatening 911 calls is better than most. But that doesn’t reassure me in the least. An armed, violent intruder can pretty much do whatever he wants to my family and me in seven minutes, and flee with time to spare before the average police response.

How do people fare in other cities with police response times to priority 911 calls?

• 7 minutes for LAPD officers on an average to respond to emergencies; pretty fast.
• 11 minutes 12 seconds for Atlanta.
• Kansas City was roughly 10 minutes, Tucson roughly 11 minutes and Colorado as well.
• 8 minutes for Minneapolis.
• New York actually increased from 7 to 8 minutes.
• The Detroit Police Department was the worst. The reported average response time to priority 911 calls was roughly 24 minutes.

Should I feel good because San Diego is roughly at 7 minutes and therefore is better than Detroit? Let’s be straight. The average interaction time between a criminal and his victim is 90 seconds. You or your family can be raped, beaten, robbed or murdered. In all likelihood the police will respond after the crime has been committed.

Perhaps the police would arrive in time to seal off the crime scene, question the neighbors, and start collecting evidence to solve the crimes committed, but not in time to interrupt the crime or to prevent violence.

In our city, the police cleared 18.6 percent of major crimes last year, down from 20.6 percent in 2014. A crime is “cleared” when an arrest is made, when a suspect dies, when prosecutors decline to prosecute, or when police declare an accusation unfounded.

They cleared homicides at the rate of 116.2 percent, which means the number of crimes they cleared in 2015 was more than the number of crimes committed that year. So 2015 was a great year for homicide detectives here, but still a bad year for homicide victims. We had 37 murders, up 2 from the previous year. We had 566 rapes, up 195 from 2014. Armed robbery and aggravated assault were also up.

Gang-related crime was down seven percent. Only a quarter of the aggravated assaults resulted from domestic violence. The increases in violent crime represent risk for ordinary people, not just gang-bangers and dysfunctional families.

These are crime statistics and police response times from one of America’s richest cities. The situation is likely worse, maybe much worse, in your town.

The courts have consistently held that police have no Constitutional duty to protect any individuals, even in the most obvious and extreme danger, unless they are prisoners or confined mental patients. Even women with court-issued restraining orders are not entitled to police response.

I don’t want to slur police officers, most are truly committed to protecting people from crime. But they are legally protected if they drop the ball. The seven-minute (or longer) rush to your assistance is entirely optional. And in seven minutes, the damage is probably already done, and irreversible.

My hat’s off to our police for doing what they can. They do a fantastic job even with their hands tied down by pin-head bureaucrats. Obama’s divisive statements regarding the police, civilians using camera phones to exploit tense situations, incidents such as Ferguson and office politics put officers under a lot of scrutiny and pressure. Everyday these heroes have to make difficult decisions regarding the use of deadly force or high speed pursuits and then must come back to an office environment where they are reprimanded for their decisions. We haven’t even added in remote geography, poor weather conditions, and other factors on the date you finally encounter a violent criminal. These can surely delay a dedicated police officer and the response.

The police cannot be everywhere. Divide the amount of citizens by the amount of police officers. Is it 1 for every 500 citizens? Whatever stats you use won’t change reality when it comes to the facts-the police do a great job but cannot get from A to Z every single time in the needed time.

If you’re serious about your family’s physical safety, you can’t depend on police to protect them or you from violent crime. In seven minutes, your lives will be changed forever, or maybe ended. Clearing a homicide is fine, but it won’t bring your child or your mate back to life. It’s up to you to prepare yourself to protect your family during that seven minutes when police are racing to your location.

Arming yourself is a good start. But guns don’t automate home defense. You need to train and practice your response, including marksmanship. Have a plan. You know your house. Think it through. Anticipate the most probable intrusion scenarios, and do occasional walk-throughs. Measure some distances and angles. Consider the innocent bystanders.

Practice using your tactical equipment in the dark. Will you need to re-load quickly? You might. Better to be able, and not need to, than to need to, and be unable. Do you know how to disarm an armed intruder? Why not? There’s training available on this.

Your intruder probably expects to overwhelm you before you know what’s hit you. One of the best investments you can make in preventing that is a dog, if you’re allowed. If you can’t have a dog, consider a system of motion detector alarms.

If your intruder is bold enough to persist after a dog alerts on him, you’re probably looking at a drug addict or an assailant with mental issues. If you can’t scare him off, you’ll have to take him down. That sucks, but it’s better than turning your family over to him for seven minutes or maybe longer. Be your first line of defense and start now.