I was just talking with my wife. I recall back in the 80's when cities here in CA were pushing "community oriented" policing. My community, where I served, wanted the police to put on picnics, change uniforms to blue jeans / brown leather, get out of the car once in a while. Man it drove every officer nuts (but me). I hated dress uniforms for every day use and wanted the blue jean approach - they let me do it - I loved it. Eventually 4 others came along but the die hards - nope. They got to go the opposite direction to militant black SWAT fatigues. They loved strapping on all that great and wiring up and labels etc. Ultimately I left LE and it was about 4-5 years later I heard that group put enough pressure on the agency to dump the jeans for the militant garb - now worn every day by every officer. The reaction of the LE was to reject what the "civilians" wanted and do what they wanted. They got a great union, big freekin dues and political pull to get what they want. I was chatting with my city manager last week he told me next year for every $1.00 in pay the get $.75 will be paid to them in benefits (retirement, health care, disability insurance, etc). Its crazy out there.