The problems of police violence -- rooted in labor organization?

Much has been written about the problems of police violence, police militarization and lack of police accountability.  One thing that seems to be missing from these analyses is a question about the basic class basis of police officers and the types of labor organization and policies that reinforce them.

Policing has long been largely a blue collar occupation.  Until very recently, few places required much, if any, higher education, and when it was required it was often 2 year degrees tailored for policing in "criminal justice" or similar fields oriented towards classroom vocational education for police work.

Thus the actual job and labor organization of police departments has been the kind of labor organization common to blue collar work -- rigid, central authority imposing complex work rules designed to extract maximum work effort for minimum pay.  Layered on top of this has been a paramilitary command structure borrowed from the military, which exacerbates these hierarchies and makes for increased conflict between labor and management.

Over time, this has resulted in the unionization of police officers.  Most of the public isn't aware that much of the business of police labor unions is little different than the business of non-police labor unions -- improving working conditions, salaries and protecting workers from exploitation by management.

Over time as policing has become more politically controversial and become tied to issues of racial equity and other political pressures, these unions have also served as bulwarks protecting individual officers from the political challenges of police work.

This mix of essentially workplace-rights advocacy and political advocacy winds up creating a fairly powerful situation for the police union and its leadership and winds up empowering police unions.  On one hand, reasonable police officers with neutral political stances may support more politically radical union leaders because these same leaders are strong advocates for pro-labor policies.

What you end up with is what we have more or less now, a police union that is firmly entrenched and has gained workplace rights originally meant as labor rights now serving as a significant barrier in enforcing policing conduct standards.

I wonder if the solution, then, is changing the labor model for police work.  Essentially, treat it as a white collar job, where workers default to a broader and more sympathetic set of workplace rules.  This would possible attract a higher caliber of worker (fewer "blue collar" employee types) and less push for stringently negotiated work rules for regular labor issues (sick time, time off, etc).  Now you're in a position to impose more policing conduct rules because they are not hamstrung by contractually negotiated ordinary labor policies.