[cco]

Their pension is funded by tax dollars, this doesn't change the incentive structure.

You'd need to have it either impact their pension payments in a way that cannot be backfilled or more directly force the police officers themselves to carry liability insurance (far better).

Of course tax dollars pay their salaries as well, but if an officer became uninsurable then it weeds them out eventually.

[kelnos]

Right, but taking from their pension directly reduces their payout when they retire. Not sure what you mean by "cannot be backfilled"; the budget is the budget, and the tax dollars only go where the (non-police) elected officials say.

[cco]

All in implementation I suppose, but typically pensions _must_ be fulfilled as they are a legal contract with the employees of the state.

If you take money out of a pension (typically illegal) or otherwise forgo payments, limit payouts etc, you must backfill those at a later date.

They're also treated very seriously by most state law, they're usually senior debt that takes precedence over pretty much any other debt a city/county owes. Really hard to get out from under.