Stricter standards should be the goal. Stricter hiring standards and stricter training regiments. It's easy to get lazy and coast through quarterly training exercises. Let me give an example: Tinytown, USA hires Officer Goodenough. Goodenough couldn't get on at a larger agency because he bombed the interview with the chief. Maybe the chief didn't like his attitude or thought he just didn't answer the interview questions well. So he goes to see the chief at Tinytown. Now, Chief Boot decides that Goodenough is the perfect warm body to drive a car for 12 hours at night in his sleepy little town, for $12.25/hr. Goodenough goes to basic, does some push-ups and runs a little bit. Enough to get by. The corriculum at this academy isn't extremely difficult, which is why it is "basic". Assuming the further training and field training he received at his department will fill in the gaps. Tinytown doesn't really have a field training program, just a supervisor to show Goodenough the ropes. All is well until Goodenough is faced with a situation that he is ill-prepared for. Whether it's his own fault for not retaining the info, or the departments for not making sure he understood... or didn't even bother training. Another thing that's hard for people to understand is that when a radio call says man with a gun, you treat it as man with a gun... But you have to be smart. If you show up to a scene and a guy is acting erratic, for whatever reason, you have to take control of that situation, or you very well could become a statistic... but that goes both ways. If a cop shows up and is clearly interested in your behavior, you might want to see what he needs from you so you can move along. But training costs money. Something a lot of agencies don't have much of. If a governor or president wanted police reform, they would put more money into police training.
So which donut you think goodenough likes best? Bear claw or the maple with bacon? Sorry. That was my 1 time only....
The thing is, though.. that guy makes up such a small percentage of the ranks. But it sets the example of training and mindset. Also, as pointed out by @shane0911, training and real life threats set different tones. I've never been shot, and don't want to be. I've never been stabbed or beat near to death, and don't want to be. And those threats exist. And training someone on when they feel that is going to happen seems damn near impossible. So, it really is a fine line.
I have a friend in Shreveport who is a doctoral candidate (she used to be one of my assistant principals here in Plano). She was driving to work before 6:30 a few days ago, and a police officer stopped her and interrogated her about "why she's out driving so early in the morning every morning." He wanted her license and registration, etc. SHE WAS ON HER WAY TO WORK...every day. Wtf? He admitted she'd done nothing else, but he made her get out of the car and prove she wasn't up to "no good." I've never been asked to get out of my car during a traffic stop, by the way. She has a son who is a military veteran, and she is afraid for him if he gets stopped. There is something very wrong with all of that. I'll say it. I don't see myself getting pulled over by a police officer because I drive the same route every day early in the morning. It's called going to work.
