One small Ozarks town will soon be without law enforcement, at least for a little while.

The police chief in Pleasant Hope in Polk County gave his resignation on Tuesday.

Police Chief Paul Byer is the last officer in the department, so when he leaves, Pleasant Hope will be without any city police force.

"Criminals only want to go where the least cops are at, that only makes sense," Anthony Busby, who lives in town, said.

That's exactly what Chief Byer is afraid will happen after he leaves.

Last month, the school resource officer and the only other officer left the department for other jobs.

"It's a small little town, but we have a lot of activity here, believe it or not and we have school district, almost 1000 kids in school," Byer said.

Chief Byer says without any police presence in Pleasant Hope vandalism will pick up again at the city park.

The city says it's not a problem. It's asked both the Polk County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol to up patrol in the area.

But, some people living in Pleasant Hope say that's not enough. It could at least take twenty minutes to get a law enforcement response now.

"There's a need for police presence everywhere. In this day and age who wants to move into a community where you have no protection from anybody," Busby said.

The city though is accepting applications for a new school resource officer and wants at least one more officer.

"We're going to look into hiring another chief of police, whatever our budget will allow," Mayor John Homer said.

That budget is what Byer says is a big problem.

"I think it's going to be tough to come up with the money needed to find a qualified person to do the job," Byer said.

We did talk with some people who said they weren't worried about a lack of police presence in pleasant hope.

Byer's last day is next Friday, September 12.