My experience is that it can be difficult to beat the efficiency of public services organized by the (small) local governments, as the workers in such services are volunteers and they are working for themselves.

Rather than private security companies, they're more like semi-official clubs with charters signed by the mayor.

They are neighbors joining forces and protecting their own neighborhoods as gangs, called Bürgerwehr (citizens defense), Wasserwacht (water watch) or Feuerwehr (fire defense) and etc.

This is a Germanic social habit that doesn't necessarily transport to other cultures, where citizens are less-inclined to organize spontaneously.

The line between public and private is more blurred here because of all of the state-recognized clubs, so a lot of the discussion people from other places have just seems confusing to us.