Law enforcement cost the government $$
Correction: Law enforcement costs the taxpayer money, government is just the pass through agent. :awe:
Spending half my life in major urban areas I regularly see both the good and the bad of law enforcement agencies. Lots of really great cops, lots of marginal types as well. Like in most organizations, it is going to be management that determines which predominates.
I have found that rural cops, and state troopers when in really rural areas, are pretty good at keeping the peace. They do need to bring in reinforcements when they encounter gangs and if there is a need for technical support, but on the whole they know who is making trouble and who is not.
Feds are a real mixed bag. I worry about how many are being recruited by the various agencies as they ramp up. The standards are not going to be quite there, but the egos are not going to any less apparent.
The really aggressive cops have no problem in finding the bad guys. The donut cops can usually find their way to the local Dunkin Donuts. Trying to get the numbers up will just result in any number of bad or inconsequential busts.
When I was in the corporate world in NYC I learned a lot about street crime enforcement from a guy by the name of Bo Dietel. He still is kind of a grand stander but was a go to guy for me a couple of times then when he was first starting off in the security business. How he got 1,400 felony arrests in 15 years compared to the average cop's career total of 180 is quite the story. Ha ha, he gave me an autographed copy of his book the first time we had dinner! He's no great author, but the book is worth a read.
One Tough Cop: The Bo Dietl Story