

But was there a situation where they were needed? Or were they standing doing nothing because there was nothing?
I have known multiple firefighters which were happy most of the time to get the support from the cops to handle the situation.
The cops I have seen were always doing something even if it were just patrolling. You can call that useless, but at least they are outside and can be called.
Same here, but it also depends per country since well average life spans, average age to buy a house, average age to start a family etc all have an impact on when a new generation starts.