Cops are not in charge of your personal safety. But I’m sure that’s not what you meant.
In an encounter with a cop, he as a weapon and the authority to use it if he feels in any way threatened, whether or not that threat turns out to be genuine. In NC we’ve had a whole series of incidents with law enforcement shooting unarmed people because the cop felt “threatened”. The people were riddled with bullets because the cops are shooting to kill. In that situation the cop is, in fact, very much responsible for whether I live or die. The fact that some cops are “complete idiots” is unacceptable.