Alot of law enforcement officers do carry insurance on our own dime on the top of the fact that most pay union dues only for the fact that the union provides a lawyer if we are involved in a shooting.
There is no guarantee that one will be given qualified immunity as a judge can and sometimes do take away an officers qualified immunity.
One may not like or agree with qualified immunity and maybe it needs to be changed or fixed but with out sometime of protection an officer would not even be able to do their job.
If one is an anarchist I am sure getting rid of all government and law enforcement sounds great, but most would like to live in a civil society and in order to live in a civil society police are necessary.
Bad police officers need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but for those who are doing their best to to fulfill their duties there needs to be some type of protection. Things don’t always happen perfectly and officers being human don’t make perfect split second decisions all the time.
As of right now qualified immunity and use of force are under attack with the Lee rule. Someday you are going to need a police officer and nobody is going to show up because every officer is going to be afraid to do anything to help.
I'm trying to think of a situation where I need a PO.
That’s the rationalization that works in theory, but not in practice. QI is a fairly recent court imposed doctrine that we functioned quite well without until the 60’s.
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/qualified-immunity-legal-practical-moral-failure#introduction