I think a lot of the problem is the way police are being trained for the last few decades. They are no longer taught to think of people as victim or perpetrator, instead everything now is Subject A and Subject B, there is also a big us and them attitude,where them is everyone who is not a cop.
I live in a town of about 10,000 people, and recently had a (pleasant enough) encounter with a couple of young city cops who were out on patrol. It was a weekday afternoon and I was digging through the trunk of my car in the driveway of the house we recently bought when they stopped behind me rolled down their window and asked what I was doing. I replied that I was looking for a Phillips head screwdriver, as all the screw drivers I could find in the house were flat heads. This lead to a short conversation about cars, asking which engine mine had (Plum Crazy Purple 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT-8) , etc. While we were talking I could not help to notice their uniforms, and how militarized they have became with velcro tactical vest, holding all sorts of gear, one of the officers had a tactical cross draw holster on his vest, etc.
Long gone are the days of the solo cop driving around patrolling in a blue or brown uniform with a revolver in a leather holster on his hip, doing mostly nothing. I grew up in this town, which has not changed much in the last 50+ years, population has grown a little, but only 15-20%, crime is still relatively low, but worse than it was years ago, I blame drugs as they are more of an issue than they were 40 years ago. 30-35 years ago on a Saturday night after midnight we would have 2-3 city police cars patrolling around town, usually with a solo cop driving, on week nights it would be 1 or 2. Now it is not uncommon for there to be 10-15 each with 2 cops during the overnight hours on the weekends, and 8-10 even after midnight on a week night.
