In America you have police forces in large urban areas. "Force" being the operative word far more than "police". Modern urban police in America are provided with all sorts of lethal and protective kit in order to allow fewer police to control larger populations more economically. Better communications, surveillance, transportation and weapons are all force-multipliers which allow fewer police to control larger populations more economically. But the downside of this economy is the nature of the control this kit-heavy approach creates. Using this model police forces have substituted the threat of brute force in order to control the population with the traditional model of mixing with the population they police and using their time, tongues and brains to police and to diffuse difficult situations with finesse. Results must come quickly and if they can't be wrapped up quickly, then force escalation follows rapidly. Now urban police have become far less a policing and community service for their own communities and far more a tool of force for the violent coersion and control of alienated communities they have little social contact with.
Police training has also changed for the worse. Now police are trained as if they were combat soldiers. They are trained to use violence far more readily and far more intensively. They are trained to react to dangerous situations violently rather than to control and deescalate dangerous situations using their street smarts and a minimum of violence in order to achieve their ends. They are trained to act quickly and forcefully, rather than gradually and wisely in too many situations. Special weapons and tactics teams are trained to kill suspects from afar quickly rather than relying on time and calm negotiation to deescalate dangerous situations gradually. As police like to say on the road, here we see a training regime where speed kills.
Police cultures can sometimes be very problematic regarding how police see and react to the communities they are supposed to be serving and protecting. The divide between police and civilians is growing wider as an insular police culture of us vs. them erodes police connections with the communities they serve. Police more and more interact with computers, other police and community leaders but less and less with the actual populations they are supposed to be policing. Follow-up and proactive visits and effective community policing are sorely lacking in many urban police departments in America today.
The result is that many police departments (and other law enforcement agencies too) have become highly efficient but also highly armed paramilitary forces which are effectively militarily occupying the communities under their charge rather than policing and serving them as public servants. This drives for economy and efficiency have made policing a rushed process because fewer police must manage larger communities more quickly. Training which drills in rapid, forceful responses to too many situations has made policing far more dangerous for those being policed and in reaction more criminals are willing to use force against police, making policing more dangerous for police too. Greater reliance on things like No-knock warrants and disproportional forced entries have made the chances for injuries and deaths of suspects more likely and have alienated many law-abiding citizens from trusting and respecting urban police forces and their officers.
Reliance on force (often overwhelming force), the imperative for speed of action, economy and efficiency of resource allocation, reactive and forceful training and a culture of separateness are what have morphed urban police into the over-powered and rage-presenting forces which are now too often filmed beating down the communities they police rather than serving them with finesse and time-consuming but thorough community policing.
It is very sad that things have come to this.
Cheers(?) and be well.
Evilroddy.
