Police in these major American cities, like all public sector workers (and especially emergency workers), get paid really well too.

The political system of these major Democrat dominated cities is entirely dysfunctional. The only thing the public sector unions, and their political puppets, offer as a solution, is more social spending:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/social-spending-oecd-long...

The US is just ahead of the pack in unraveling.