“The people get the government they deserve” is an old saying. ““Every country gets the police force that it deserves” was cited in 1922 by English criminology expert Basil Thomson (1861-1939). “It has been rightly said that a people gets the government it deserves; it is equally true that a city gets the police force it deserves” was cited in 1951.
 
“It is an old saw among experts that every town gets the police force it deserves, wants and pays for” was cited in 1953.
 
   
5 December 1922, Galveston (TX) Daily News, ‘English Detective Details his Work: Sir Basil Thompson Shows American and British Ways Differ,” pg. 3, col. 2:
“Every country gets the police force that it deserves,” he declared. “If you think well of your police force and meet it with your confidence, it will repay you. The will of the community can only be interpreted by the police as the community wants it interpreted.”
 
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Crime and the Police
By Anthony Martienssen
London: Secker & Warburg
1951
Pg. 185:
It has been rightly said that a people gets the government it deserves; it is equally true that a city gets the police force it deserves.
   
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Collier’s
Volume 132
1953
Pg. 183:
It is an old saw among experts that every town gets the police force it deserves, wants and pays for.
 
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The Trouble with Cops
By Albert Deutsch
New York, NY: Crown
1955
Pg. 5:
It is an old saw among experts that every town gets the police force it deserves, wants and pays for.
 
15 May 1955, The Sunday Star (Washington, DC), “What are the Cities Doing To Improve Police Service?” by Miriam Ottenberg, pg. E-5, col. 5:
He echoes the oft-repeated warning: “Every town gets the police force it deserves, wants and pays for.”
(The Trouble with Cops by Albert Deutsch.—ed.)
 
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Police and the Public
By Srikanta Ghosh; Orissa (India). Home (Public Relations) Department.
Bhubaneswar: Govt. of Orissa, Home Dept.
1965
Pg. 43:
The old saying, “The society gets the police it deserves” holds good even to-day and if the people of our country want the evils in police to be eradicated and the standard of efficiency and integrity improved, they have to closely associate themselves with the Government and the police administrators in the task of making police better.
 
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Which Way New Zealand?
By Harry Morton
Dunedin: J. McIndoe
1975
Pg. 224:
As with governments, a nation gets the police force it deserves.
 
Google News Archive
20 January 2005, The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), “Letters in the Editor’s Mailbag,” pg. A6, col. 3:
People get police they deserve
(Capt. Richard Eide, Retired, Los Angeles Police Department, Marcola.—ed.)
 
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Marcus John Brown
‏@MarcusJohnBrown
“A county gets the police force it deserves” BBC - Police forces all face major budget cuts http://bbc.in/1FnIn0j  #cutshaveconsequences
7:57 AM - 7 Mar 2015