You’re correct. The police aren’t there to make you feel safe, that’s the PR switcheroo that the State requires you to mentally undertake. The police are there to act as a deterrent and to enforce the wishes of the nation state. They, as a collective, are a necessary evil, but that doesn’t mean that individuals within it aren’t unnecessarily evil. The two things can co-exist. At their best they are compassionate arbiters of their law, at their worst they are petty minded bullies with uniform inflated egos. I’ve met both and worked alongside both. I have no fondness for the police, nor do I have a desire to remove them from society.