Actually, what I had in mind is more in line with Sheriff Andy Taylor. Even the occasional Barney Fife is OK as long as someone with sense is there to rein him in. It just doesn't make me feel safer to have the police wearing bulletproof vests, shirts with POLICE emblazoned on the back, toting tasers, pepper spray, multiple guns, carrying flash bombs and retreating to a tank.
How can anyone trust them?
Ever stop to think that cop shows on TV aren't reality, and still aren't today, but serve a specific Marketing purpose because people want to believe?
Try this next time you're watching TV cops...
Count how many rounds they fire in a single episode and figure out how many days said show was supposed to cover.
Note how many rounds hit their target. See if that matches reality.
Note the lack of use of hearing protection or even a flinch when firing in an enclosed space like a stairwell. Note none of them are deaf for a week.
Note that they almost never catch the wrong person.
Note none of them spend any significant time giving traffic tickets, even those depicted as beat cops.
Note none of them work rotating night shifts and are often too fatigued to be making life or death decisions, let alone be in a grumpy mood from it.
Note how an entire team can take the time to work a single homicide for a week or more.
Note unless it's a combination show with firefighters that a significant portion of their time isn't taken up with motor vehicle accidents.
Note not a single Federal officer (perhaps excluding Breaking Bad) ever confiscates personal property and holds it for years.
The list goes on and on. You want Andy Griffith? He's still here. And still on the boob tube. Under the names "CSI", "Blue Bloods", "Hawaii Five-O", etc etc etc.
All sorts of kids grow up watching that trash and then applying to be cops based on what they think the job is. Then they get to hose the vomit from a drunk out of the back of their cruiser at 2AM after the Sarge says, "Hey kid, why don't you take him to the station.", with a sly wink to the older guys on the scene of the street fight outside the bar near the professional sports arena of your choice.
Your TV utopia never existed, ever. Waxing nostalgic for something that never existed in the real world, in any town larger than Maybury, and even then, questionable, since even small town Police Chiefs have to kiss at least one politician's ass, or be politicians themselves in the case of Sheriffs, is kinda weird. Especially since you're old enough to know it never existed.
Did anyone ever see Andy running for Office or begging anyone in town for donations for his re-election? Pretty sure the modern Sheriff isn't headed to the fishing hole with a slice of Aunt Bee's pie, without it being a fundraiser for some "cause" and there being a van load of pies for sale.
My Sheriff isn't bad. But he actually has and needs a significant honest to goodness Posse (complete with marked Posse vehicles and piles of old men with white hair wearing Posse uniforms), to even pull off traffic control for our small town rodeo.
Ask your local politicos if they'd approve a local Posse. It's about as close as you're going to get to TV Nirvana.
http://www.elbertcountysheriff.com/posse.html
It'd be a great way to pass time in retirement. I couldn't squeeze eight hours of volunteer time and multiple mandatory meetings out of my schedule if I wanted to. Which is why when I took my new job I resigned as the Communications Engineer for another volunteer organization.
If you have the time, fire up the Posse. An organization like that can probably be the most effective bridge between groups of Citizens, those who's job is LE and those who's jobs aren't.
