The police are beholden to their community. They're civilians who owe no loyalty to military leaders.
Some Terry Pratchett scribblings:
Do you know where 'policeman' comes from, sir? ... 'Polis' used to mean 'city' That's what policeman means: 'a man for the city'. The word 'polite' comes from 'polis', too. It used to mean the proper behaviour from someone living in a city.
t always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was “policeman.” If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers.
No civil police force could hold out against an irate and resolute population. The trick is not to let them realize that.
The Axiom 'Honest men have nothing to fear from the police' is currently under review by the Axioms Review Board.
