There's a scene in the New Avengers where Luke Cage tells a reporter that he joined up on the condition that the Avengers, instead of playing X-Box and watching TV between super-villains, got into uniform and just showed up in a particular neighbourhood to throw a scare into the local crims and make them take their business someplace else, then repeat the process, to make it too non-profitable for them to operate there. He called it IMPACT super-heroing, after a similar programme by the (I think) NYPD. He then points to where there's a crack house near a school and demands to know why no-one seems bothered by this. He then threatens to come back and tear it down unless it was dealt with by the authorities.
That's the kind of stuff I can see super-teams doing in the "real world".
I haven't got it exactly right, but that's certainly the gist of it.