You're perfectly correct. This is exactly the distinction I've been stressing in other discourse for a good while. The authority, in the field, of a duly appointed officer used to be derived from the so-called "police powers" of the state and require that there be some public safety concern at issue. Other civilians ("other", because the civilian police are civilians themselves, whatever else they say) used to be entitled to disregard orders which were either unlawful, illegal, or simply not relevant to public safety, putting the police in the position of having to go get warrants. But these days the whole system has swallowed the idea that these officers are authorized to instantly enforce law in the field.
You’d be surprised how many folks jump to the defense of rogue cops out here, regardless of what is actually captured on video. It borders on ridiculous...