I took a criminal justice class once.And each week, a cop from a nearby department, came in and give a recruiting speech. One guy advised the students that, if ever they applied for a cop job, and in response to the question "Why do you wanna be a cop?", they should respond "Because I wanna have power over others!". This is actually considered the 'correct' response, because, as the cop recruiter put it: "Everybody wants ta have power over others! Right?"

Personally, I'd like to see police departments disbanded. Modern police departments have only been around for 150 years or so. But, in the US anyways, they have become way over-militarized. In their place, I'd like to see Public Safety Departments--no badges, no "ranks",-- and they'd serve as firefighters, EMT techs,as well as normal police duties. They would also serve as school crossing guards, and clean bird crap off picnic tables. They would shovel snow, serve as dogcatchers,and pick up litter along the roads. No uniforms, and no guns, unless absolutely necessary. And sidearms, when issued, would be limited to revolvers, since they tend to get trigger-happy when issued large capacity semiautomatic pistols. (They also tend to shoot themselves in the foot more often with the semiautos).