local law enforcement has changed so much in my adult life it is virtually unrecognizable as being from the same locale/country.
Stuff like this (and tsa) makes me not un-sad to permanently live outside the US.
I travel to Europe alot and its not uncommon to see both military as well as police patrolling high traffic areas such as airports, train stations, etc... but you can always tell the military personnel from the police.
Here the line is blurred unless the guy is right on top of you pointing his weapon at you screaming “police”, “police”...