And what would that make the US police forces look like? To me, as an European, it makes them look like a weapon, which you can conjure by a simple phone-call. It doesn't have to be like this.
It is a weapon effectively. Psychopaths and criminals will not hesitate to use it. During Communist times in Soviet Union same thing could happen if a neighbor denounced you for spreading anti-government propaganda, while say in reality they just didn't like your sheep grazing too close to the fence. Families ended up disappearing overnight because of it.
It is basically using the irrationality of a power structure as leverage.
(As another European) it's hard to see any alternative for regular people whose profession just happens to put their life at almost permanent risk, thanks to the attitude toward guns over there.
I'm not sure if in Europe we'd react any different -- if you called the police to report an in-progress shooting, I wouldn't be surprised if a similar trigger-happy result emerged
As a guy originally from Ukraine that as you can imagine has a fairly big problem with availability of weapons at the moment that police officer would go to jail. Having much stricter rules on when and how weapons can be used looks like a good thing.
The risk of gun violence against police is completely blown out of proportion. Of the reported police gun deaths each year, the overwhelming majority are suicides. The biggest real risk to police in the US is vehicle accidents from driving recklessly. Being a police officer isn’t even in the top 10 most dangerous professions. On the other hand, over a thousand people are killed by police in the US each year without due process.
It is basically using the irrationality of a power structure as leverage.