Seeing heavily armed police (with actual assault rifles not AR-15's) and paramilitary members (the Carabinieri and Gendarmerie etc) is much more common in Europe than the US and been the case for decades.
Full automatic fire isn't really that interesting of a distinction. 30-40 shots spread over a few minutes is probably going to do more damage than 30-40 shots in a minute.
And if you consider how a police officer acting in the public interest is going to use it, there isn't really any difference at all between automatic and semiautomatic fire.
Seeing heavily armed police (with actual assault rifles not AR-15's) and paramilitary members (the Carabinieri and Gendarmerie etc) is much more common in Europe than the US and been the case for decades.