I don't know how expensive enforcing laws is, but crime is really expensive. It destroys lives, property values, tourism and quality of life.

When people have control over whether laws are enforced where they live, they usually choose to enforce them rather than let everything go to hell.

Yes it is very expensive. There are about 40,000 policemen in NYC. Then again, there were lots of cops in old days too -- but they weren't managed very well.

Back in the 80's, it was crazy. I grew up in a good neighborhood in Queens. The NYPD hid the drunks and incompetents in precients that served safer neighborhoods in those days. One day, a car almost hit my friends playing stickball in the street, then proceeded to go down the block and empty an Uzi into a guy at a bus stop. (Life Lesson: Don't piss off Columbian drug dealers.)

So my dad calls the cops. He dials 911, and the cop asks "Are they still shooting?" and hangs up when my dad says "Uh, no". He ended up pulling the fire department call box out on the street, and the firemen called for cops over the radio.

They did it without a budget increase. The book "The Blue Ocean" describes the strategy. IIRC, they shifted resources from other kinds of crime-fighting to combat visible crime.

Sometimes expense is a matter of resource allocation (my apologies for bringing the "drug war" into this thread).

I suspect there is more crime when resources are more focused on violating rights than on protecting them.