The kind of police force that honestly can’t figure out Bruce Wayne is Batman, probably serves the type of city that needs Batman
A. it’s only obvious to us that Bruce Wayne is Batman because we already know who Batman is, the cops don’t know his parents were murdered or that he’s a billionaire or anything about him except that he’s a very skilled fighter who wears all-black and has been identified by his victims as looking like a giant bat. A lot of the cops and the criminals and the people of Gotham don’t even believe he’s a real person. They don’t figure out Bruce Wayne is Batman because they’re never given a reason to consider it, in their eyes Bruce Wayne is a pampered little rich boy who doesn’t care about anyone but himself and has never been in a fight, and besides, he always seems to have been seen at SOME high-society social event on the same night as Batman sightings, so they wouldn’t even consider the possibility.
2. Gotham City “needs Batman” because the GCPD work for the mob. That’s not subtle or meta-interpretation. The Gotham City Police Department is corrupt. They terrorize the people of Gotham as much as the bad guys. That’s explicitly and unambiguously the reason Batman exists. Gordon and his team of Clean Cops are the only ones Batman will work with, the rest of them are, as far as he’s concerned, paid muscle for the mafia
C. I hate just-shower-thoughts I really do
GET FUCKING REKT
Don’t forget that in “the batman” there was a cop who did figure it out… Until batman and bruce wayne were seen in the same place. Alfred donned the batman costume and hit up high enough so you could see batmans silhouette as one detective was accusing bruce. Also in the batman, Barbra figured it out too until until she saw how bruce wayne (with amnesia because of the penguin) reacted to danger by hiding and then dismissed him for being a pansy ass bitch.
Also, in the dark knight trilogy, the Wayne Industries accountant figured it out and was going to blackmail him until morgan freeman explained how rediculous the scenario was. The “i’m gonna blackmail a guy who beats people to a bloody pulp” thing. And in the dark knight trilogy, officer blake figured it out but because he understood that batman was one of the few benevolent forces, he kept it a secret.
So yeah, people did figure it out