As I like to quote "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away".

The ineffectiveness of police protection was brought home to me in a very blatant way one day when someone who was robbing cars in the neighborhood stole some tools out of my car. The police wouldn't even take fingerprints - said that there was nothing they would do - NOTHING THEY WOULD DO. Almost exactly one week later, an older lady down the street had some money stolen from her car. SHE was related to someone in the police department - they had the criminal arrested within 24 hours. Months later, when this guy was back on the street, one of my neighbors caught him stealing out of his car. Mindful of what had happened before, he knocked the guy down and sat on him until the police came and took him away. Luckily, my neighbor wasn't charged - VT isn't THAT leftist yet.