[molson]

Officers still hand out trading cards and interact with the community directly. I know one state trooper that hands out stickers to kids that are in cars he pulls over so they won't be afraid. (Of course he risks unconstitutionally extending the seizure by doing things not related to the purpose of the stop, but we'll worry about that when someone has the guts to make that argument).

There is a lot more awareness and accountability of the bad things, because of the media and internet and audio/video recordings, which is a good thing. We have a lot of sentimentality about the 50s, but I guarantee you police as a group behaved much worse then than today, especially in poor minority communities.

Edit: Only looking at the changes in the law and nothing else, police today have to be much more restrained than in decades past. All of the changes regarding Miranda, and the right to counsel, when deadly force is authorized, the limits of Terry stops and when you can detain and search people. Maybe it's possible that the profession, in some places, is more serious and less casual than it was in decades past. If that's true I think it's because the job has changed a lot. Before you'd use your experience and personality to solve problems. Now, with all of the changes from the Warren Court, officers have to know about more about the law, and be cognizant of how every word they say will be analyzed by lawyers and judges in suppression hearings. That's not a bad thing, defendant's rights are more strongly protected now. But it does change the tone of the job.