[perlwle]

I can imagine that It's far cheaper to make friend with the police chief by giving him a free meal. Just in case the restaurant need special attention from the chief for situations like local gangs ask for protection money(probably very rare) or fight with drunken eaters. You never know.

It's still norm to bribe local officials so they will go easy on the businesses, such as speedy things up when dealing with the local gov, not enforcing laws when the business wants to pay less taxes.. etc.