DHS=Paramilitary Force?

I was recently sharing some stories my father passed down from his days in the police academy with my co-workers. We worked our way to the topic of personal presence, or the image you project to others. At this point, one of the group piped up "In the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it was all about intimidation."
Say what?
There are two possibilities here. One is that he is correct, and DHS is in fact all about investigation through intimidation, setting aside all potential for establishing long term relationships within communities. This would really result in DHS being a paramilitary, rather than law enforcement organization. I would find this particularly alarming, because any American who takes his rights seriously should question a quasi-military organization whose sole mission is to attack inside our borders. On the other hand... I think this guy is full of crap. Intimidation is the poorest way to handle questioning a fellow citizen. If you're dealing with a real tough character, trying to show what a bad dude you are is going to backfire, because he's going to look forward to his first chance to crush you. Believe me, I grew up in Michigan Militia country, and I don't like to see individual liberties overrun either. Even worse, if you're dealing with a typical citizen, your intimidation ploy is likely to work too well. You will scare them, and scared people get that adrenaline rush, and then you have no idea how they are going to react. It's not likely to be good. At best they will lie, at worst they will panic and you, the citizen, or a bystander is going to get hurt.
I'm not a police officer. My father was, though, and I spent my young life around him and other officers. They could sniff out lies with ease, their grasp of body language (and the finer points of fried food) was breathtaking, and they always projected the right personal presence. One of authority, not intimidation. They were in control of the situation, but had no interest in humiliating anybody, least of all the weak. Well, except for the case that I heard of a few snowmobile riders vomiting all over a country bar, but that was quite an exception. Of course, that's likely why Mr. Fullofcrap didn't last a year with DHS before crawling back to his old job. Let's be glad he's behind a desk where he belongs.