You normally have a deliberate choice of whether or not you want to directly interact with software developers because they're typically privately employed, with police this is not always the case because they are public servants. If your job involves accepting tax money from the public in exchange for maintaining order amongst the public, the public should have a say in the practices used to enforce said order, and the definition of said order, anything less is despotic. In most countries no one is forced to become a LEO, it's a voluntary position. If you don't like the general public scrutinizing how you execute your job, you should choose a career in the private sector (and even that shouldn't protect you from all scrutiny).

To be fair, a uniformed beat cop in a marked car with a pistol isn't operating in stealth mode. They aren't exactly snipers, deployed in gilly suits.

The preceeding idea is kind of stupid, but then again, an advertisement of proximity to deadly force and the liklihood of extrajudicial summary execution probably has some utility. Something that tells you that a line is about to be crossed, from which there is no return.

That little detail about police interaction isn't something that gets a whole lot of lip service. It's usually all "heroes" and implicit trustworthiness.

An uniformed beat cop still is way more experienced and skilled in dealing with dangerous situations than a commenter here. Think about it this way : who would you want to call when somebody breaks into your house, an uniformed beat cop or the HN commenter with the top ranked comment on the another police outrage post? No, the stealth sniper is not available, Jedi knights too.

Assuming somebody has broken in to my house and is presently in the house with me.

Is calling the police the best of all possible solutions in this scenario. How do the police know which one of you is the offender?

The police will probably correctly identify the person fleeing the scene while carrying a tv as the perpetrator. If for whatever reason the distinction is not so easy to make, they can just capture you both and ask your neighbours which one of you lives in your house. And presumably there is some way to prove that you live there, e.g. the house is on your name, there are pictures of you laying around, the dog listens to you, you know the color of the cups in the closets in the kitchen, all the clothes in the house happen to fit you... need I go on?

That assumes that a) the person flees and b) police stop to ask questions.

LEOs are public servants. Software devs may or may not be. Taxpayers are allowed to critique public servants even without firsthand knowledge.