Quote Originally Posted by Krasni View Post
I'm not disagreeing with you but I'd like to point out that I don't think anyone actually believes a police officer's job is to prevent crime. I've always thought it was to enforce the law once it's been violated.

Regardless, we need police and I think everyone can agree that a majority are good people doing a somewhat thankless job.
If that be the case, then we could be like the firemen and sit around watching tv or sleeping until someone calls and then head out. That would show my paramedic brother!

The very act of patroling, parking and watching, and traffic enforcement are visual indicators of police activity that tend to decrease crime in the areas that it occurs in. Unfortunately, there isn't any way to get an accurate poll or quantitative number of exactly how much crime was prevented or moved due to the increased police activity. The same argument is made for concealed carry. We just can't poll the bad guys to see why they didn't commit a crime at this location.