I want good teachers and good police officers, too. My two cents is that the compensation isn't the problem. After all, the same could be said for our armed services, and no one disputes that they have outstanding people and outstanding leadership, with similar pay issues.
I think the problems in both professions stems from the system, rather than the people. It seems to me that most cops I've met are pretty high-quality people. I'm friends with lots of outstanding people who are teachers. I don't know a lot about the internal issues of the police force, only what I know from mine and others' encounters with them.
As for education, I think the problems come from the way it's administered from the top - and the way politics impacts the classroom. Also, it should be easier to fire teachers, when needed. I think government employees should work under the same basic conditions as the private sector, namely that your boss can let you go under his/her discretion, rather than going through a cumbersome process that ensures bad apples stay in the barrel.
So... to try to pull this back to the thread and end this terrible threadjack we've gone down, I assume you'd be in favor of lifting the protection police officers have from civil suit and against the new Indiana law protecting teachers from the same (both mentioned above)?