BUFFALO, N.Y. -- For some of those who put on a uniform every day to protect and serve, last week's attack on police in Dallas led to moments like this:
"I found it myself, fighting the urge to look at tops of buildings, like a tourist in the city for the first time, so to not let the threat or the bad things that happen dictate your behavior, but to be aware," said Sheriff Tim Howard, R-Erie County.
Howard is stressing to his deputies that while there are bad people out there, the safety of others is at the forefront.
"For the most part, the people of the community are good. At the same time, to the community, the majority of law enforcement people are good. Once we, law enforcement, begin to think that everyone out there is looking to do us harm, that's going to hurt our ability to interact with the public," Howard said.
Scott Phillips is a former police officer and an associate professor at Buffalo State College. He thinks police academy training needs to be revamped to help close the divide between law enforcement and the community. Phillips says research shows there are three overriding issues the socialization of police officers when they're trained.
"The first is that it's typically an authoritarian structure, I give you orders in the academy, you follow the orders, which is kind of training them for when they get on the street, ad it's somewhat paramilitary, very often," Phillips said.
"The second is there's group loyalty, you only have the other officers, the people next to you, to trust so, essentially, what they're doing in the academy is training to have an 'us versus them' mentality."
Phillips says the third is stress training, and together, those issues make it difficult to remember the components of things like community policing and problem solving, especially with the focus on always being aware of their surroundings for safety purposes.
"The idea is that it's a dangerous job. Even though statistically speaking, it's not as dangerous as most people think. The impression is that it's dangerous, thus the officers are always on the edge of, 'Who am I dealing with, what is the situation? Where are your hands?'"
Phillips also says complacency isn't good either, which highlights the complexity of being a police officer.
"They've got to balance out between being nice, 'Hi, how are you today?' but also being safe, and that's an extremely difficult balancing act."