each other. And conversely the more you rely on the state to watch your back the less you rely on others or assist others . So if the police 'just let it happen' the people may begin policing themselves more. So if the police 'just let it happen' the people may begin policing themselves more. And then we realize policing, like everything else, benefits from specialization, people get together to pool their resources to hire police, create a system to prevent free-riding on these police, and presto! we're right back where we are now. If the police aren't paid to stop crime, individuals will start paying to stop it themselves. This would probably cost more than funding the police department, not work as well, result in more innocent people getting shot, etc. Law enforcement definitely seems to be one of those areas where government is more efficient than the free market. As to the question of should we just let crime happen, it already does. There's not much police can do to prevent a person intent on murdering someone from doing so, especially with the ease with which someone can get a gun. If we were serious about actually preventing crime, rather than just jailing criminals after the fact, we'd push for having better inner city schools. Curious. A related point, in some way, is prison policy: should we be rough-handed, intending to punish criminals, or should we be easy on convicts, attempting to rehabilitate them? As Scandinavian countries tend