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I worked closely with police for over 10 years, primarily as a software trainer. After spending time with hundreds of them, I noticed a general pattern. Most of them were insecure, took a lot of pleasure in being authoritarian, looked down on things that weren't important to them personally, and tended to not be very well educated and/or have limited imaginations.
One a couple of occasions I had detectives and other higher-level police employees confided in me about their jobs. They pretty much confirmed my observations, without me mentioning them (I just listened), and every one of them told me that most police departments in mid-to-large-sized cities have real problems with police officers suing the city or county for very minor things (ex. they didn't get the locker they wanted). As one detective put it, (paraphrased) "most police officers have very fragile egos and get aggressive when they feel they aren't being 'respected.'" They said that the job itself just tends to attract people who want to feel important and are insecure.
During the past 20 years I worked for three different cities, at various points. Though the positions were different in all three, in each case I was included in monthly meetings where city issues were discussed. At first, I was very surprised to hear about all the problems that cities have with their police officers, and how little accountability they really had.
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