An opinion from a non American: This is what you get when you focus on tactics without focussing on strategy. Reactive vs proactive. By splitting the American police into many many different layered jurisdictions with no overall plans or even goals, there will never be a coordinated strategic view of anything.

The US military is far more centralised and (despite its many faults) aware of planning for wider strategic issues.

Many police depts don't seem to want to face up to the fact that the tactical problems they have now have root causes in their own short sighted policies, incentives and behaviour. If they carry on like they are, these problems will only get worse.

Other western countries with more centralised police hierarchies seem to put more effort into community relations and other more strategic stuff, even if it means less 'effective' tactics ie less control, arrests and convictions etc.

That does make a lot of sense. This reminded me of battle of adrianople, where the roman army was gathered for negotiation purposes and the emperor was not read to attack. But some Roman units began the battle without orders to do so, believing they would have an easy victory, and perhaps over-eager to exact revenge on the Goths after two years of unchecked devastation throughout the Balkans, however this resulted in the utter defeat of the roman army and was probably start of the process which led to the fall of the entire Western Roman Empire