How are police usually represented in media?

Police are routinely presented as heroic figures trying to protect the public from harm.....which, in theory, is the role of law enforcement.

But there are two other significant factors:

1) similar to the embedded reporters with military units in Iraq, the police get good press from the reporters assigned to the police beat because the journalist have an on-going relationship with the police, and

2) there will always be a symbiotic relationship between the press and police. Reporters get a substantial amount of news from the police department and the cops need news coverage to make their jobs easier via public compliance and assistance.

When journalists report on rogue cops or bullying tactics like Taser usage on non-threatening subjects, these reporters have an awful lot of support from the professional members of the police force.

I have seen this over and over again in my days as a journalist. Police officers do not want to trust their lives to unstable or untrustworthy fellow officers and will help reporters identify the bad cops.

Hope this answer helps you.

this varies a lot

based on whether you are watching news about a crime

or news about police corruption

or a police drama

As demigods and neogods. Too bad that the reality does not match that image.

As hero's most of the time, as criminals when they shoot a black criminal even if they where protecting themselves or others

Lots of people lost everything in the last depression and many actually died!! If it happens again the same thing will happen and perhaps more will die - how the heck could that be good for anybody let alone America?!!!