I'm curious how diligent the neighborhood citizens were in soliciting their local government to increase police presence. Did they write to the police chief? Attend council meetings? Voice their concerns to elected officials?

I believe people are inherently lazy. More often than not people will take the path of least resistance. What would happen if the volume of support for the crowd-funding were directed at the local government? It seems like people would rather "one-click checkout" (tm) than make the effort to fix their own government.