''The officer that took the call didn't dispatch and he will be given a written reprimand,'' Engle said, adding that the officer who took the call at 1:27 p.m. should have sent somebody.

Jill Coppersmith, Elyria Avenue, said she called the police Tuesday afternoon when a man approached her claiming to be her new landlord. Coppersmith was home with her two children, 6 and 7 years old, at the time, she said.

When asked to leave her property, she said the unidentified man cornered her on the porch, asking for a piece of paper to write his name on. He then insisted he should come inside.

''He was drunk, I could smell it,'' she said. As a woman home alone with her kids, Coppersmith added, she was afraid of what the man might do.

Coppersmith said she managed to get away from the man and into her home, locking the door behind her. She then called the police, gave them the man's license plate number and was told someone would be out to her home, she said.

The man continued to wander around Coppersmith's house, trying to open the backdoor and insisting he be let in the house. When the police didn't arrive almost an hour later, Coppersmith said she called again.

By this time, the man was gone, but Coppersmith said she was still afraid he might come back and wanted to know why the police never came.

This time the call was answered by a different dispatcher, according to Engle.

Coppersmith said the dispatcher told her she was calling during a shift change and no officer was available to send. ''I asked, ÔWhat if he comes back again with a gun and comes after me and my kids?' And they didn't even care,'' she said.

Engle said the failure of police to show had nothing to do with a shift change. ''It wasn't shift change when the first call came in,'' he said, adding that between the time of the first call and the 2 p.m. shift change, there were 33 minutes where a unit should have been sent.

The second dispatcher did offer to send a unit, but Coppersmith said she no longer needed someone to come out since the man was gone, according to Engle.

''If she didn't want us to come out, we can't make a report and we didn't catch the male driving drunk. Our hands are tied in the matter,'' Engle said. He added that the police would be more than happy to file a late report if Coppersmith would like. ''If she wants someone to come out, we'll be glad to make a report,'' he said.

According to Lorain Safety Service Director Craig Miller, an officer receiving a written reprimand is given written notification that he has violated his officer contract, and this violation is noted on his permanent record. The amount of reprimands an officer has received will determine the action taken accordingly, said Miller.

The officer's name was not immediately available.