There are roughly 800,000 cops in the United States...

[haele]

83. Bad cops are a sign of poor leadership in a community.

If the community leadership turns a blind eye on discriminatory practices, legal thuggery (i.e., police brutality and overt authoritarianism), and petty corruption, then you're going to have more police who do bad things to innocent - or even not so innocent - citizens.
When the "service" part of "to protect and to serve" is ignored, then you see bad cops. It's easy to "protect" - just carry around a hammer and hit anything that looks like a nail. It's much harder to serve.

So, if your community leadership is interested in protecting "the bottom line" you're going to end up with a police department that is just peachy with hiring the bottom of the barrel and playing the "thin blue line" song to the general public.

I saw it in the Navy all the time. When the leadership is poor, the lower levels of the hierarchy have no problems being jerks, slacking off, and causing problems with the quality of life for others and morale in general.
When there's good, responsible leadership with clear directions, quick response, and an interest in both the job and the people doing the job, the work force does what they're expected to do and the work gets done correctly (for the most part).

Haele