The average salary for a recruit police officer is $40 to $45k and a lateral transfer from another locale receives on average $54k. With benefits and overtime those figures would escalate but I still would not describe it as "high income". And my guess is a semi-urban northern Midwest environment is a bit more typical than Nevada. Your point's well taken, though.
It may not be high income, but it is respectable. There are other privileges and perks that come with the job, such as relatively high pensions at fairly early ages.
In return for these things, police officers are expected to have a high level of integrity, and a willingness to assume some risks to protect the public.
Unfortunately, the idea of taking risks for the public has given way to the “first priority is to go home at night”. That should never be the “first priority”. A police officer should be willing to take risks just as soldiers are.