Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

ALBANY, GA. -- Just two days into spring, Albany is already seeing more than its fair share of violent crime and that has some citizens scared and fed up.

A neighbor who lives in the Gadsden neighborhood where Monday, a 13-year-old girl was shot in the face. "We have kids, grandkids, cousins, who want to go outside and play and it’s not safe nowhere for them to come out and play," she said.

The streets may appear safe – with children riding the school bus and running in their yards – but this resident says a criminal element is never far away. "These sorrys – they need to stop what they’re doing and wake up and smell the coffee," the neighbor said.

The gunfire on Gadsden followed a weekend shooting at Club Eclipse downtown and last week’s shooting and robbery of a Hispanic man in Putney.

Another neighbor told us she was too frightened of retaliation against her and her three young children to be identified. "It makes me afraid to let my kids outside to play and just rejoice in the sunlight and not stay cooped up in the house," said the woman.

She says the only time she sees police are when they’re chasing someone. "They’re supposed to be protecting and serving," she insisted. "They’re supposed to be making sure that neighborhoods are safe and I feel like they’re being lazy."

Police officials say they’re doing everything in their power to keep the streets safe. But budget reductions have left many law enforcement agencies short-handed, which makes doing an already-tough job even tougher.

"The negative budget is hurting everybody," said Chief Don Cheek of the Dougherty County Police Department. "It’s hurting the local economy. As the local economy struggles, our funds are cut. Our resources are stretched more and more thin."

Cheek says the department is having success filling patrol vacancies but they’re still short three officers.

"When we’re down officers, it obviously shortens or limits the amount of coverage we can do," he said. "It probably increases the response time to calls."

Even with the lack of officers, Cheek told us his department is seeing high clearance rates when it comes to crime.

And it should be noted that one those slots that needs to be filled is that of Lieutenant Cliff Rouse – who himself was the victim of a violent crime when he was shot and killed in the line of duty.