My father-in-law's dad was a New York detective before discovering he could make a lot more money and with a lot more safety by moving to California as a private eye. Taking pictures of cheating husbands carried a lot less risk than infiltrating the mob, just to name one example.
While his family roots were Sicilian, he was a second generation Puerto Rican, so very handy for developing trust with two big communities in New York, back in the day.
What most people don't know is that lots of the locals respected the mob, sort of as a shadow or alternative government. They had standards. For instance, if there was an apartment fire or the like in their 'hood, they would be there with blankets, food carts and assistance to find alternative housing and such. And they wouldn't deal in drugs. Narcotics harmed kids and they drew the line there. If some freelancer showed up to deal in drugs, said dealer would often be found dangling from a lamp post early some cold morning a few days later. The police would investigate the stranger's execution, but not very diligently. You probably know what I mean.
Yep. Used to be drugs were nearly non-available around here. A few sleezballs sold pot, but that was it. After “the change” more and more free-lance drug dealers popped up. At first it wasn’t too bad - then about 20 years ago ( about the time the IBM presence diminished greatly) the really bad characters began to flood up from the city. There was no one to stop them, and welfare was sooooo easy to sign up for in that county. Now it’s the heroin. I get info on that straight from first responders. On average there is at least one, but up to five ODs per day now. It would have been rare twenty years ago to have one per YEAR. I’d rather have the good old days of the “mob”.