Butler has ample measures of frustration, fear and anger to correspond with the drug problem reflected in the 92 fatal overdoses recorded in Butler County last year, the majority of which occurred in or around the perimeter of the city.

We grow impatient for a return to a community that’s more secure, more friendly and prosperous — not so hemmed in by threats of death, crime and — for lack of a better description — sheer insanity.

But let’s be honest: Butler is not Mayberry, N.C. It never was, never will be. A drug scourge defined by 92 overdose deaths does not remotely compare to Otis Campbell locking himself into Sheriff Taylor’s jail to sleep off a bender.

That does sound flippant, but there’s a point: We can’t expect our law enforcement officers to clear cases at a rate to compete with Mayberry’s lovable lawmen. That was a 1960s sitcom with a 23-minute script and a laugh track, spouting gentle moral lessons in a parallel North Carolina that apparently never heard of Jim Crow.

Real life just doesn’t work this way. It takes time and persistent work to investigate and build a criminal case. Even bad guys have the constitutional right to due process and an attorney to insist on such things.

One consequence of such realities is that a resident’s tip to the police doesn’t often trigger an immediate prosecution, or even an immediate response. That’s just the reality of it.

Sometime you won’t even get a call back. Don’t be offended or discouraged. Have you ever been denied medical information about a loved one? Doctors and nurses call that protected health information.

Police sometimes have to operate the same way. They can’t blabber information all over town and then expect to catch bad guys in the act.

At the formational meeting this past week in the Butler Public Safety Building, police Lt. Chad Rensel encouraged residents to report anything they see that they believe might be a drug-related crime in progress. Even if you are unsure whether or not it could be criminal, call anyway. Rensel says police would rather get a dozen calls that turn out to be nothing than one call for an actual incident.

We’d like to concur with that, and suggest one idea for direction as the drug watch begins to congeal: Invest some energy in training volunteers how to observe and report. Perhaps the most underrated duty in law enforcement is that of trained witness/observer. It’s important to make note of the what, when, who, where, how much and how many of a criminal incident, in the eventuality that a jury is asked to weigh testimony. Which is a jury more likely to accept: “It was around noon;” or “It was 12:17. I checked my watch to remember the exact time.”

Finally, keep in mind that law enforcement officers and other first responders stand heroically at the front line of this crisis. They look stress and danger in the eye on a daily basis. They get frustrated, too, just like the rest of us.

A neighborhood drug task force should evolve to become an avenue of support for law enforcement — a path by which the public can help police do their job of protecting us. It could become a tribute to their mission, which could be nearly as good as life in Mayberry.