First off, thanks for your service Paul and Semper Fi. You've made a lot of realistic observations that are spot on and especially the ones on training taking officers away from their beats. When officers aren't handling calls, most people expect them to be patrolling their assigned beats and making sure the criminals know any given area has cops in it. A good cop can catch a lot of stuff before it blows up into something worse and make a given area that much safer.

Steve4102 raised some valid points about training. Some departments have ranges where cops can train on their own time. A lot of departments aren't that lucky. That doesn't mean an officer can't find another non-range location to shoot but such location won't have all of the range equipment available. One can never shoot or practice too much. Several officers can even get together and practice but it's not the same as training. When a police department conducts training, they establish tactics, procedures, etc. that all officers on the department are made aware of. For instance, you will likely have established some set of hand signals if you train with other officers off duty but the rest of the department won't know what those hand signals mean. Your group of officers will know what each officer in a team of 2 or more is supposed to do when handling a tactical situation but other officers in the department won't. None of this means you can't practice and train on your own and become more proficient but it makes a huge difference if the whole department is on the same page because the department has established tactics, communications, etc. that you can practice further in small groups.