I remember the respect I developed for the uniformed officers when I worked for a year as a volunteer in a homeless hostel. So often they had the ability to defuse a difficult situation, where a more aggresive approach could have brought turmoil. Examples include having to section people, removing the axe from the person who had used it to get though our door to have a chat with us, and being helpful to the young staff at the hostel after we discovered one of the alcohol addicted residents dead on his bed. Unfortunately I did not share an equally pleasant experince with detectives, but maybe I was unlucky, and those experiences were not a good example.