I was in Japan for a month not long ago and one thing that stood out for me was police walking around with large wooden sticks. Many walked around with expandable police batons, casually fully expanded.
Back when the bosozoku were more active (even 2012 was interesting compared to now), there were certain main streets that had a near-constant police presence between midnight and 4am on Saturday nights. The police would use those big staffs to knock the bikers off of their rides sometimes.
I don't know where you're from but "casually fully expanded" sticks doesn't really sound so scary when police all have handguns, metal batons and tasers where I am.
And I'm in relatively gun-free Australia.
Was that really a police? The way you describe, it sounds like private guard man protecting the cash transfer.