I really don’t know if our local union is the same as large metro areas (small rural area)
But when you’re in the presence of someone who truly appears to be enjoying your powerlessness....that is terrifying.
I imagine that such individuals, and “toxic departments” evolve over years. Of course individuals can “go off” any time, but I suspect that when a whole police department goes bad, it begins with bad morale.
Conversely, if their morale improves, they misbehave far less. A great example of improvement was when Rudy Giuliani too over as mayor of New York. At the time the police had scandal after scandal, corruption was bad, and morale was low.
The police already liked him, but he made it clear that they were “his boys”, and they were now going to operate in a way that works, no more wasting their time.
All the police problems just stopped. Morale jumped, and the cops were happy to do what obviously worked, and made them look good.