I think that is exactly what was intended by the last line in the article. Thanks for expressing it so well.
Once upon a time, back in the eithties, even, unarmed miscreants could be taken down without shooting them. Police are weaker now, or trained differently, or something. Hereabouts the sheriff is the paramount law enforcer. The various police chiefs cross him at their peril. Hereabouts we don’t have police who are so quick to use their guns. The Sheriff An illustration is the matter of shooting dogs. A couple of years ago police shot two dogs about a month a part. Two police officers left their jobs here and went somewhere else. No more dogs have been shot by police. Police are trained to handle even big threatening dogs and they do. They do not shoot drugged crazy teenagers who flail at them with lengths of pipe. They hogtie them and put them in the back of the car. These are not superhuman cops. They are trained. Psychos are weeded out before they get hired.The sheriff gets a glance at all the new hires and some do not stay hired long enough to get on the street.