Over recent years, crime and public concern about it have steadily increased along with declining confidence in the police and greater willingness to question their usefulness. These changes may signify a period of turbulent transition in which forces of necessity are impelling changes in ideals, codes of manners, and expectations of benefits. Although the police perform diverse tasks, only those involving crime prevention and maintaining order constitute the primary justification for their presence. Contrary to popular belief, studies on police effectiveness have shown that increased manpower does not decrease crime, although changes in deployment or tactics may reduce certain types of crime. Researchers do agree that deterrence measures will work only to the extent that a person is persuaded that the chances of getting away with an offense are sufficiently low to warrant caution. Realistically, this would require a type of intensive policing that most Westerners find excessive and intolerable. Public resistance to a regular police force in England was substantial until the early 19th century. Acceptance came with the Victorian era when the police came to be viewed as a social necessity and the proper guardians of the moral order. Decreasing crime in this period can be attributed to urban improvements and a concern with outward conformity and material advancement as well as policing. The recent upsurge in private security reflects wider social trends and developments in criminology, such as an interest in prevention rather than correction, a movement towards self-help and community organization, and shifting the burden of blame from the offender to the victim who failed to take the necessary precautions. The paper includes footnotes, 26 references, and discussion comments.