Where I live today, about 40% of the town budget goes to firefighters and police together. I was honestly surprised it was that low. However, it's one of the basic functions of a city and I live in a very low-tax place. I don't think you should generally be upset that police cost a lot of a town's budget, especially if the budget is small.

By contrast, I used to live in NYC, which had a budget of over $100 billion, of which about 5% was the police department.