(La Porte, IN) - Police officers in La Porte often feel overwhelmed from being short staffed.

The city is trying to do something about it.

Police Chief Paul Brettin said there’s about 35 police officers compared to about 48 over a decade ago.

The city is trying to boost manpower levels and reduce some of their duties like paperwork to free up more time for them to be on the streets.

Brettin says the community would benefit from increased law enforcement presence and so would his officers from not having to keep such a hectic pace often leading to burn out.

Brettin says one reason manpower is down is losing officers faster than they can be replaced.

He says five new officers are being added but they won’t be able to hit the streets until late in the year because of the months of training required for breaking into law enforcement.