Memes of Production

The word "police" is not synonymous with "law enforcement." Police have only existed for the most recent 2% of civilization. All the grand historical empires you've heard of through history? They didn't have police. There weren't any cops in ancient Rome. There are ways of enforcing laws that do not involve having a clique of people that make it their entire career and develop an in-group culture hostile to everyone else.

For example, a common method of enforcing laws was through universal service. In many Medieval towns and cities, every male of a certain age and wealth had to spend a certain number of nights per year on town guard duty. It wasn't your profession; it was a duty you took on like jury duty.

Maybe you'll always need some career professionals for certain specialized tasks. I don't think we can assign crime scene investigation duties to a random person. But in terms of the people that actually show up when a crime is being committed? I would trust a randomly selected person from the population rather than your typical police officer. If drafted individuals can handle fighting literal wars, they can handle the duties of a beat cop.

The problem is that policing, as an institution, attracts really bad people. It's a relatively accessible path for people to gain a great deal of power over others; thus it attracts the worst our society has to offer. The police profession attracts people who want to hurt and violate others. Grade school bullies grow up to be cops. If instead of policing being a full time job, it's a gig that anyone can be assigned at random for a period of time, then you don't end up with law enforcement that selects for sociopathy.

Remember, police beat their spouses at twice the rate of the population as a whole. The police profession attracts society's worst people.