Police, skid row

When one thinks of police what is their job? Peacekeepers, law enforcers, crimefighters, any of these words which do not truly encompass the police idea. Bittner pretty much sums up the funtion of police by saying they are "a mechanism for the distribution of non-negotiably coercive force". By this definition, any police fit into this catagory since it is morally neutral. "While popular opinion holds that police acquire their right to use coercive force from their duty to enforce the law, the sociology of police holds that police acquire the duty to enforce the law because doing so may require them to invoke their right to use coercive force."
So, now we have a sociological understanding of the police function, and the power that comes alongside it. But, then how does peacekeeping, law enforcement, and crime fighting all coexist within society? One would think by law enforcement and crime fighting that peacekeeping would be the end result. Instead peacekeeping can sometimes be considered a form of law enforcement, but NOT crimefighting. Skid row neighborhoods are a perfect example of such.
Skid row is probably what people imagine when they think of a dangerous city. Skid row is defined by wikipedia as "a city district frequented by vagrants and alcoholics and addicts".
Skid row exists with little police intervention and dealt with by containment. Police will often overlook prostitution, drugs, and drunkeness as long as it is contained and does not grow too far out into "normal" society. So there is no crimefighting in these areas, very little law enforcement (or law containment?), but the peace is kept for the most part in surrounding areas of the society.
According to Brown, "the decision to not enforce often brings with it an “exchange” between the officer and the individual. In the case of skid-row it might manifest in a certain amount of cooperation from the individual (e.g., limiting their activities to a defined area) or in the officer expecting information on more serious crimes in the area".
Now, is this acceptable? Why is it allowed? Some of this information I have quoted varies in date from the 60's to 80's, but I believe it is still correct. I have seen police interaction with skidrow areas firsthand, in fact lived in one without even understanding what it was for a long time. False raids to scare, with no actual arrests.
I believe that this is not an acceptable policy in the long term, because it always grows. It cannot be contained to one area at all. It is a temporary keeping of the peace, but a false peace.
I have no answers, it is just there and exists, with the police as a bridge between two worlds of society. It is an anomaly.

http://www.bookrags.com/research/police-eos-03/
http://rynardlaw.com/Article7.aspx