When I was a kid, it was the job of the police to make the public feel safe. Somehow or other, that got turned around.
This is precisely the reason for my discomfort at the roadside License / Insurance / Registration checkpoints that seem to be in vogue today.
By design, that technique assumes GUILT by the drivers randomly on that route and exclusively allows passage once credentials are examined.
Call me crazy, yet an assembly of unsmiling, confrontational, steroid-enhanced, buzzcut guys (some with dogs) isn't setting the stage for a friendly exchange.
This pumped-up approach to law enforcement is disconcerting and is not the neighborly "peace officer" of years past.
It is also how one can go from just minding their own business in their car to being dragged out through the window at gunpoint in virtually an instant.
When we were kids, all of us knew the local cops by name (e.g. "Officer Bob") and he or she would occasionally give us a stick of gum or piece of candy. I don't have any kids, yet I know it ain't happening like that these days.
Years ago there was a case in Indy where the homeowner of a raid gone wrong (wrong address) killed the first officer that entered his house with a shotgun.
He survived multiple gunshot wounds from the following officers, was charged with manslaughter and as many other charges as they could muster and tried.
The homeowner was aquitted by the Jury.
I think police today are 1) too militarized and 2) watch too many episodes of "Cops"!