I believe I've said it here before but I'll say it again-
Some of the best people I know became police officers. I really do mean the 'salt of the earth' / just wanted to serve their community and make a difference type of people. As I grew older- and I'm only speaking for myself, I can't even begin to quantify the number of stories these friends of mine shared about their fellow officers.
Granted, there's always different sides to the story (and I can only share one facet) but I recall hearing the stories of these friends being the minority as for their reasons for pursuing the career as compared to their peers. If you'll allow me- the two groups that I most often heard complaints about were (1) those who went into it because it was a 'safe' job for various reasons and (2) those that wanted to have a perceived sense of 'authority' in their community. There were likely plenty of other "one off's" but those were the predominant groups I heard about over the years from my buddies venting.
This 'next part' is just me rambling but from what I've personally observed over the years (especially within the past 10 years), it's become a harder job being an officer/deputy. As such, it seems (to me at least) the folks interested in making a career of it is a diminishing population. The "smarter" youth can see that it's a career that financially doesn't pay the bills unless they put in gobs of overtime and they also see the (for lack of better words) "prestige" or general "respect" society gives that profession continue to spiral downwards and they ask themselves if it's really worth their while (and unfortunately I'd argue that many of the folks our society wants/needs in those positions say "nope"). Meanwhile- the departments still need to meet staffing requirements but are seeing a lack of candidates that met the previous standards. So the standards are lowered to meet quota and we find ourselves in a proverbial 'race to the bottom' and meanwhile scratch our heads and wonder why folks stopped trusting previously respected institutions.
