The idea though is police are more likely to be in a situation that puts their life in danger . This isn ' t policing , either . A policeman should be in no more danger of life threatening injury than a postman . Policeman aren ' t supposed to be receiving end of deadly force . They ' re supposed to enforce laws . You don ' t enforce laws with a gun , you enforce laws by asking people to obey them . And there are a lot of ways that criminals can kill a cop without a gun . There are lots of ways a car can kill a cop , but they still drive them every day . This is how polluted the average American ' s concept of policing is we are unable to separate it from the idea of violence . Violence is no more intrinsic to policing than it is to delivering mail .