KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- This year, FOX4 has heard stories from dozens of people who have been victims of property crime. Those crimes continue to happen around the Kansas City metro. Mark Romero tells FOX4 that over the weekend, his daughter and her friends saw multiple cars that had been broken into and left with shattered windows near 42nd Street and Mill Street in the Westport area. “I noticed it's been a problem, especially in Westport. It's been a little scary leaving work late. It's still something that passes through my mind, and we work late, and it's dark, so I’m just trying to take those extra precautions,” said Allison Mitchell, who works in the area. KCK native makes the transition from pro basketball player to trainer Romero claims that when his daughter and her friends reported the break-ins, they were told it could take multiple hours until an officer arrived. KCPD Public Information Officer Alayna Gonzales addressed response times during an interview on Monday. “Something I want to address that I hear often is, ‘Well, I called the police, and they took too long to show up.’ I do understand that that's an issue because we do have to triage calls. But that does not mean that your report is not important,” Gonzales explained. “It is absolutely critical that we get there and get that taken care of for you because it helps us identify those patterns.” KCPD officials say they are using multiple strategies to prevent property crimes. Police are focused on targeted enforcement, community engagement efforts, and crime trends and patterns. “We are working collectively with several different elements within our department to include our strategic policing section, who will go out and do surveillance on businesses, our tactical enforcement officers who are helping us locate people that we have identified as prolific offenders and getting them in custody,” Gonzales said. “Then we're also working with neighboring agencies to say, ‘Hey, are you guys seeing this pattern, or is this person causing any issues for you?’” Gonzales said the department reimplemented its footbeat squad, which means more officers are walking the streets instead of doing drive-by patrols. “It's a little more one-on-one. It's a bit more like, ‘Oh, there's an officer right there. They're not just going to drive down the street in the patrol car, and then I can go about doing my criminal business’. No, they're in the area, and they're talking, and they're seeing and getting to know who these people are, who business owners are, and getting information from them on what to look for trend-wise,” Gonzales explained. Some believe an increased police presence is the most effective way to combat crime. “If they see more police officers, they are going to be less likely to be out committing as much crime because if you look around, do you see any? And if you could see them, wouldn't you be less likely to do it,” One Kansas City woman told FOX4. “We talk often about staffing shortages and things like that. We're not going to use that as an excuse as to why we're not going to be able to help the people who are suffering,” Gonzales said. “So we're doing everything we can to be proactive and creative and come up with new ideas on how to be better for our community.” One of KCPD’s most recent arrests related to property crime was a suspected accused of vandalizing a Vietnamese business in the Columbus Park neighborhood last week. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android Gonzales says property crime rates are down this year compared to 2023. “So it does make me happy to say that we are trending down in 2024 compared to last year. But that doesn't mean we're not pushing our outreach and efforts into combating the crime. We've been working tirelessly for years with property crimes, but we're really trying to showcase those efforts, especially so that we can show the community that they have a police department that cares and is working hard to get justice for them,” Gonzales said.