I’d hate for a newbie to think that gearing up makes it okay to treat their neighborhood like a racetrack.
I think what’s really behind squid discussions like this is correlations. It’s not that gear makes one automatically safer, but rather that wearing gear often correlates with increased safety, both b/c it directly protects you, but also b/c it’s indicative of a certain mindset.
I’ve seen utterly dangerous squids fully geared up, and I’ve seen masterful riders wearing cotton windbreakers. But they’re outliers, and statistically anyway, not wearing the proper gear is positively connected with worse outcomes (one of the big findings of the Hurt and other reports).
To be sure, all of us to some extent compromise on safety (except for perhaps Eternal and Megaspaz, who I always think of as riding around in full leather race suits with the aero hump on the back), but there does seem to be a baseline for basic safety…I’m just guessing here, but I imagine what DMVs usually recommend for gear (which is pretty basic) is the level at which if you go below, you’re going to have significantly worse outcomes.
I think for law enforcement, the decrease in safety by their lack of gear is compensated for by their skill/experience/training. There are probably many situations where we’d lose it and crash with injuries, but a motorcycle cop wouldn’t.
I’d bet overall, law enforcement accidents tend to be much fewer in number than civilian, but with more injuries when they do happen.