gizzy2000 said:

Being a cop gives a person so much power and authority, and since cops that do wrong never seem to face consequences it's no wonder that so many violent power-hungry people want to be cops.

I visited a maximum security prison once, and many of the inmates said that their goal was to become a policeman. But I don't think it is for the reasons that you state. Rather, I think that it is because for people living in crime-ridden areas, police are often the only people that they interact with who have their lives together and are earning an honest, respectable, and regular paycheck.