I don't think your understanding is correct, see this article: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/is-the-seattl...

This was also written in late 2020. There are now 1,080 deployable officers, down from 1,325 as seen here: https://www.seattle.gov/police/about-us/about-the-department...

And that's what this "security" force would solve.

The problem with police today is that there is no single problem with them. They are near-useless for solving crime. They are useless for preventing it. They are bad at dealing with situations that don't require a thug with a gun. Sometimes, they can't follow the law, while trying to enforce it. Other times, they enforce something that is not the law. Sometimes, they ignore dangerous, illegal behaviour. Sometimes, they employ incredibly excessive force to deal with not-dangerous, maybe-illegal behaviour. When they screw up, regardless of how badly they screwed up, it's nearly impossible to hold them accountable for it.

Yes, you can cherry-pick one of those problems, and claim that uber-for-mob-justice will solve it. Will it make any of these other problems worse? Better? Worse for people who can't pay, better for people who can?

I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good, but I am not particularly impressed by this.

> Oh? They are going to figure out who stole my catalytic converter, and arrest the fence who bought it?

I think the idea is to try to catch it in the act. The LAPD is notorious for being slow. I was in a hit and run accident where my car was completely totaled and I was in a daze and it took them an hour to come and I'm pretty sure the only reason they actually came was because a bystander was mad and claimed there was injuries after waiting with me for a while. If they wont' come to an accident in a good time, I doubt they come to a break in. lol

For comparison's sake, New York City and Chicago have about 4x more officers per capita than Seattle

The NYC counts are bloated because they include a whole bunch of 'police' that have nothing to do with boots-on-the-street policing. Financial regulators and port inspectors, for instance, are included in those counts.