I remember reading a pretty convincing article arguing that the introduction of cars - and abolition of walking the beat - was damaging to policing by consent. vague memory is that being in a car separated officers from being a part of the community they were policing.

Can't find a link or remember the title so it may have been quite some time back - maybe when I still had an FT subscription.

With current budgets and manpower they don't even patrol in cars that much any more, just respond to incidents. That can't be good for avoiding the impression of "us and them".