Our need to believe in Protect-and-Serve runs deep in our dna. In fact, it goes back thousands of years. This could be why government and its agents fail to disclose The Public Duty Doctrine.
Protect and Serve grew out of Old-World storytelling (as you'll see by the links). In the Old World (Greek), if the hero was about to be killed, a machine-like god would descend and save the hero from certain death. The audience, us, had no problem in believing that we would be saved by some divine being. There was no disgrace in being saved. The gods were always watching and taking sides.
New-World storytelling, however, tells a different tale. In order to be truly victorious, the hero absolutely must resolve his/her complication alone, without the deus ex machina.
These two storytelling methods have been at odds with one another, similar to what I've been talking about with The Public Duty Doctrine versus Protect-and-Serve.
Most of the U.S. population still believes in the Deus ex machina, regarding personal and public safety. They do not want to be told otherwise. However, today's movie audiences want to see the New World hero, not the Old.
Government and its agents are in a pickle. They go along with the charade until they have no choice but to disclose, usually as a result of being sued for failure to protect.
Here's the clincher: Law enforcement wants you to stay in that Old-World frame of mind, wants you to believe in the deus ex machina, and do not want you to aspire to Hollywood's idea of hero problem-solving. If, unfortunately, the deus ex machina fails to snatch you from the jaws of death, how much is an American life worth anyway (See June 18, 2009 posting)?
Welcome to the Old World -- Wanesville.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/deus%20ex%20machina
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