I took its discussion of consent to more mean something like "a democratic[1] police force can only be effective if the society it is operating in wants it to b

I took its discussion of consent to more mean something like "a democratic[1] police force can only be effective if the society it is operating in wants it to be successful". For example, there are currently significant segments of America where the social norm is to never involve or assist police except for the most extreme crimes[2]; this of course significantly impairs the police's ability to effectively respond to more minor crimes. [1] I went back and forth on what to call this. Basically by "democratic police force" I mean one that doesn't adopt strategies that we tend to associate with a "police state" such as keeping the peace by crushing dissent, draconian punishments for any challenge to authority, pervasive surveillance, etc. [2] I recently heard someone frame it as "you should only call the police when violence would help the situation".