The few interactions I've had with the local police (in a suburb just west of Austin, TX) have been just fine, and related to things like a dead or injured animal. I sat on a couple of juries in local traffic court, and from what I could see and hear the officers testifying all conducted themselves in a professional manner both in court and with the motorists they ticketed. My town IS listed in the National Speed Trap registry, and I suspect an appreciable amount of revenue is generated this way.
As for the department's leadership, our (now former) police chief was not particularly liked by at least some of the rank and file. He arranged to make a commercial for the prepackaged meals being sold by the HEB grocery chain, using police personnel and resources in the commercial which ran for a while on local TV stations - this rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He got a new $26,000,000 city police HQ built. He also ran his own consulting business while chief of police and served on multiple boards. He later allowed a company to put cameras on the public right-of-way in an upscale housing development, something only the city council was empowered to do. This last prompted the city to request his resignation. He's now a dean at a local community college and is (among other things) on an FBI curriculum committee. I don't know if these are all paid positions.
