Many years ago, I worked for a small P.D. in Northern CA that had an amazing diversity from its VERY prosperous and mostly caucasian residents on the city's west side to a full-on combat zone, ghetto on the east side of mostly black residents.  The officers could find themselves being berated by a well-off homeowner whose house had been burglarized or was receiving a traffic citation and (actually) 5 mins later patrolling a VERY dangerous neighborhood where every call was high risk. Police officers have to be able to "shape-shift" in the blink of an eye; some are VERY good at it, and some simply are not.

I have found the H.P.D. to be VERY responsive to my calls for service; they respond promptly and usually with a service oriented mentality.  I do NOT see a lot of proactive policing though; they'll drive by an unlawfully parked car all day and not cite it, but when I call in the complaint, there's a ticket on that car within MINUTES.