Some of the other replies are missing the fact that we can look at the history of why police departments were created: to break strikes and chase slaves. The historic record is clear that police were generally created to protect capital.
I know someone else commented that my view is American, but the original article is about the (American) SEC... so... I will double down and show evidence from my home state: Pennsylvania.
https://www.psp.pa.gov/About-PSP/Documents/Pennsylvania%20St...
The whole idea of the PSP was to create a less violent force to control labor (compared to the companies' private security solutions).
The (downvoting) reader is encouraged to repeat this exercise for their own locality.