The police should police- protect and serve, build community relationships. If they do get overwhelmed by a riot situation the governor should call out the National Guard to regain control. That is my opinion. Police departments cannot function like your local law enforcement one moment and an army the next. If the LEO are handy enough or have enough different type of officers to make that work- community perception will not allow it to work very long. There is a limit to what people are willing to accept and many have reached that limit or getting close.
Perception of LEO right now is thugs playing army that are kicking in doors for possession of marijuana, parking tickets, etc. and often kicking the wrong doors in at that. Perception is LEO are killing family pets, wounding and killing innocent people left and right. That perception is an exaggeration of reality. I still believe most LEOs are not thugs by far,by but the militarization is not helping with public opinion.
The militarization of so many federal agencies is even worse, few agencies need armed personnel- even fewer need anything close to a SWAT team or a small army.
My local police wind up doing a lot of stuff that probably isn't in the job description. Things like helping Animal Control (or taking over for them on the weekends) and code enforcement kind of stuff.
That isn't killing people and breaking things, which is what the military does.
/johnny