It's more than they are just a band of criminals in their own right, they are collectively scared for their jobs, as they should be. I looked it up the other day, and in the county were I live, population around 300k, between the Sheriff's department, and all the individual cities with their own departments, we have at least 4,000 cops. Mind you this isn't Texas with huge counties or anything like that, it's not even a large county by Georgia standards. 4,000! Mind you, crime here is pretty low, mainly the garden variety DUI, some shoplifting, and drug arrests.
We have our own SWAT team, with tanks and bullshit it's fucking ridiculous. A few months ago, a guy in a neighborhood across the street had a mental health breakdown, the SWAT showed up, and the end result was that the SWAT team burned the house down They of course, were hailed as heroes that saved the day by the local media. Those of us nearby were baffled. They came in like cowboys on tank, shot explosive tear gas into a house, and of course it burned to the ground. I'm sure that was a big fucking help to the guy in the midst of mental health crisis.
I can't wait for us to legalize drugs and ditch most of these idiots. Right now I would encourage anyone to just do a quick search in your own county to figure out just how many cops you have, I think you will be surprised. I know I more or less live in a police state, and I'm betting you do as well.