This is why many departments create and value Citizen's Academies. All types of folks attend these academies including those who are fascinated with the profession and are deciding whether they should make it a career, college students doing research, average citizens who just want to know how their department functions and handles business in their communities, and anti-police activists.

These departments take people out on ride-alongs and put them through sophisticated force simulators. Those simulators open the eyes of nearly 100% of the people who go through them. Once they realize how fast death can come for them and the short amount of time they have to react and place an accurate shot on a moving target, reality suddenly hits them.