Here's a police recruitment ad (admittedly from more than a decade ago) [this video] (Newport Beach Police Department recruiting video, from 2008) And the problem is just the salary and QI? I don't think so.
What the police are supposed to be is determined by local culture. Here's a police recruitment ad from Georgia: [link] Here's one from California: [this video] (The original blog post that highlighted the difference between these is down, but here's an archive link: [link] . I pulled the youtube URLs because the archived page doesn't appear to work.)
> The warrior mindset is at the root of so many of these problems. We need to disband all of the police forces and start again with a new culture based around a guardian mindset and community service. Nearly ten years ago, Reason posted a comparison of police recruitment videos from Decatur, Georgia, and Newport Beach, California. They illustrate beautifully the two mindsets you describe. [link] The videos don't play on that page any more, so here are direct links. Decatur: [link] Newport Beach: [this video]
Here's a Newport Beach (California) police recruiting video: [this video] They were actively recruiting for the type of person who would enjoy being on a SWAT team like this. [link]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
4 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.