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We need cops that see their role as a civilian function, not a paramilitary function. Black BDUs, no-knock raids, and military weapons are a BAD THING when 99.9% of what cops do has no need of those things. We could have one highly trained State Police unit in each state to handle those situations, and spend more time doing dull work like taking fingerprints at burglary scenes and matching them to known criminals.
The lousy performance on solving property and ordinary violent crime is in large measure due to the "we have more important things to do" attitude.

To restore balance, I'd say that for every year a cop wore black BDUs, they ought to wear a pink bunny suit. That by itself would weed out a lot of cops that are in that job for the wrong reasons.

I grew up around law enforcement folks (my father spent 26 years in the profession), and most of them do see themselves in a civilian role. My father-in-law (22 years on NYPD) joined because of a genuine desire to help people, and he is not out of the ordinary in that role.

Sure, there are some hot dogs who get turned on by the guns and authority, etc., but by-and-large, they are the exceptions. I'm not speaking from a Pollyanna perspective, either. I spent a day in jail and lost my license for a month as a result of a dishonest police officer, so I know they are humans who are sometimes wrong and sometimes make mistakes.

One other thing, I wouldn't necessarily say they have a lousy record on solving crimes. The one time my home was burgled, the perp was caught. Depending on the jurisdiction and the circumstances, and given the hostility they meet in many communities where people will not help them solve crimes, they do a pretty good job.

And which police officers are the ones wearing black BDU's? Are those the ones that drop out of the black helicopters at night when no one is looking?

Search "donut watch."

Good for you if the local cops are good guys. But the overall trends suck. You are in denial if you think militaization of policing is a paranoid fantasy.

A handful of large cities need a SWAT team. Otherwise one state police SWAT team or the FBI could handle every actual serious situtation. So let's start with our unneeded SWAT wannabes. We'd only need about 15,000 pink bunny suits to adjuest their attitudes.