Local police exist in many western countries and walk unarmed. (London?).
However every town in the US has been turned into a toxic mayberry due to automatic weapons,armored personnel carriers and more important than the hardware a mentality of US vs Them.
Really sad actually. I could never imagine a cop being "them" until a few years ago.
But we (US citizens) are ultimately, sadly a violent people. And the govt has taught us that.
Fear may work to fight terrorism abroad it doesn't work here.
Stop scaring, tasing, shooting, killing people. Then we will trust you again.
Major world cities are policed without guns. What exactly is our problem?