To very roughly paraphrase Terry Pratchett from his novel Snuff:

“Coppers that forget they are also civilians are no longer coppers - they are soldiers.”

Obviously Terry said it better (and if I had the book in front of me I’d track down the specific quote - and will if anybody is interested), but I think the feeling that Police are somehow separate from the community they serve might be part of the problem we see with abuses of power by individual police officers and some entire departments.

Don’t worry… this site won’t become a soap box (maybe the occasional observation). Just had a thought I ran across while reading this weekend.