Burlington, Vermont slashed its police force. Hilarity did not ensue.

One of the shibboleths of cutting budgets is that the corporation, or agency, or non-profit will have to learn to do more with less. It's not possible to consistently do more with less; otherwise we could cut the budget for [fill in the blank here] to nothing and be able to do everything. Here's an illuminating story about Burlington, Vermont, a small liberal city that decided to cut its police force ... and what has happened since. The takeaway? Violent crime hasn't increased, but the quality of life took a nosedive.  Like Burlington, Portland has reduced its police force, not so much by an intentional budget cut as by attrition and neglect.  The result?  To me, it seems much the same as what happened in Burlington.