"Thick as thieves" means they're very closely involved with each other's lives. The kids of most of the police and assistants went to school with those of the victims. They saw each other at church, Derby races, and local sports events. In a small town everyone knows everything about everyone. Gossip is the major source of excitement. So that's why the real reason the Sheriff is resigning after 7 years at the end of May.
There's an understanding in very poor towns that families must feed their children and there aren't many alternatives available. After all the uranium mine should have opened a year ago. With the loss of many potential jobs, and only one of the family group working consistently as a nurse's aid, how are babies going to be fed? Who's going to pay for the medical bills?
Originally the men would hunt and fish for food, grow a few crops, and lie about their age to get into the military. It was easier when most were born at home with the assistance of midwives and there weren't birth certificates. If you were tall and strong from trying to grow greens and pick wild berries, and you could easily handle a gun, you'd enter the army when you were a young teen to send half your pay home to your hungry family. The youngest American to be killed in WW II was later proven to be 13-years-old, and not 18 as he had claimed.
Just as the military overlooked underage recruits, so did the police realize the necessity of making and selling moonshine as one of the few means of survival available. When prohibition was lifted many turned to the manufacture and sale of illegal drugs. With all of your family members helping out you could then be generous to those in the town in worse circumstances. As long as town folks didn't steal, crash their old cars while under the influence, or allow the cartels to take over their operations the police all knew to look the other way. Usually their salaries were supplemented too so that they could send their kids to college to get a good job.
Look at the number of teens in the community dropping out of school having acquired few real skills, and having multiple kids with different baby daddies and momas. What's the real alternative for many? Poverty and desperation goes hand in hand with child and spousal abuse.
