It is just one of the things that helps create an us vs. them mentality for the police. People don't trust the police (for good reason, by many press accounts) which exacerbates hostility toward people seen as hassling them for revenue (not to mention the seizure of items and effects during vehicle searches without charges levies, which smacks of looting under color of law).
There is a strong and developing sense that rules are applied unevenly, and not just along racial lines, and the media foment the latter resentments in the population in general, where they can.
Without 'beat cops' on foot, getting to know the people and the area--and be known, police have become another faceless uniform not to be trusted in the public mind.
Worse yet, they see shows like 'Cops', and what once was respect degenerates to fear and animosity.
On the other side, the police often see the worst of the worst of our society, and that colors their worldview, too.
With increased militarization comes less respect for the Constitutional Rights of the people the police serve, and a greater tendency toward lethal force, even administered by allegedly non-lethal means.
I can't recall the last time I saw a police show on TV where the policeman was someone's friend, saved their life (with one exception of officers getting a guy out of a burning car), or wasn't a harbinger of bad tidings. Right down to the storm of media accounts of shot dogs, the public has a bad view of those they once respected as protectors of the people, and has come to view them as oppressors. Even without 'roid rage', that hostility becomes mutual.
When all you do wrong, and little you do right gets to the public eye, you might get an attitude, too. (NOT excusing it, just trying to figure it out.) In the end, we need to return a sense of Honor, not only to police ranks where it is lacking, but to the public view of the police. For the latter, that will require police acting honorably, and cleansing their ranks of those who violate the public trust and do not so conduct themselves. Eliminate the impression that a police officer can perform acts behind the badge without punishment that would get people on the other side of the tin jail time, and that would go a long way to restoring good faith.
Another symptom of the modern police, is that they are union, and they are part of a union coalition that has taken over the political power of cities, with the goal of looting the money of the citizens of that city, for lavish pensions, and short work careers and high pay, and disability, making their own work conditions etc.
The police are off the leash, they and the teachers, city workers, firemen, lifeguards and all related unions, and the democrat party, are literally taking over cities as their own cash cows.
I think the police have morphed into something that cops of 80 years ago would not recognize now if not for the uniforms.
Cops aren’t there to preserve the community, and reflect the community, or even to protect the community they are largely out of our control, and the more generations that continues, the more morally corrupt and insular the departments become, and the more hiring and promotions, reflect it and reinforce it.
Even not discussing police work, many of us in big cities recognize that the unionized police and the other city employees, voting as a massive block, are dominating city elections, and practically appointing city government, and then looting the coffers and becoming even more independent and renegade.