Police officers resigning

[RED]

Headline- Every officer resigns from police force in a Florida town. It is happening elsewhere, too.

I would like to know exactly how many cops are enough. Google says In 2020, there were 696,644 full-time law enforcement officers employed in the United States. That is about 1 officer for every 470 people in the U.S. Yet we see a lot of places like Melborne Village, FL a town of 800 people with 6 city cops or one officer per 133 people. In MO there was Macks Creek with a population of 320 that had 5 city officers in addition to deputy sheriffs, and State police.

Why do those places have that many cops?

[Allen]

Depends upon the area.

When I was young we had one cop. He worked 5 days a week and only worked during the day. He was enough, had time to visit and socialize too. Today, the population is probably 10X but we have 20 police vehicles---don't know if that means we have 40 cops or if everyone has their own personal ride. Plus, we have many unmarked vehicles that I'm not counting because I don't know. It's quite a few though. Do we have that much crime or need? No. When something does happen all the surrounding cops from nearby towns join in as well too.

Non-incorporated areas here, though heavily populated, have no municipal police at all. If need be the nearest county sheriff's deputy is called in and there are few of them on the streets, especially at night. Here again, if a big enough incident happens, neighboring police show up as well.

In places like NYC nearly every law abiding citizen needs to be a cop.