When authorities aren't doing their jobs, we're left with vigilantism or nothing.
Lets make up some estimated numbers that the average resole rate is 8%. Would we be willing to double the police budget to get 16%, assuming falsely that we are lucky enough that double the budget doubles the result. What if we make assumptions of guilt and raises the resolve rate to 20%, but also increase the false accusations by 2000%? What about a camera in every street, testing the case that camera surveillance decrease crime (just like London).
I think authorities are mostly doing their jobs within the limits that we gave them. It can naturally be done more efficient but we are talking about such low resolve rates and that makes it look like they do nothing in most cases.
> Then think of how much scientific inquiry has been discouraged because people don't want to work under those conditions.
That's an entirely different issue. What we're talking about here is work that exists, but is not cited due to it's authorship. If Adolf Hitler himself had correctly proven Goldbach's Conjecture, is the proof itself so inseparable from his other actions that it should be rejected with them?