Layton being a cop is silly

Does anyone else think this detail was incredibly silly? Layton's characterised as a fairly hardcore leftist on the few occasions politics explicitly come up, at no point actually uses any skills associated with being a cop. Personality wise, he also seems to favour reasoning with people and appealing to their emotions over the intimidation and authority-wielding you'd expect from a cop.

The only time it really factors into the plot is the initial setup of 'only detective on the train' which is already a pretty bad plot point and couldve been written around.