Agreed. This type of ceremony has gotten out of hand. Same for when a firefighter or EMT dies in the course of duty. Obviously tragic and deserving of respect and recognition.
That said, why does almost every single big and even the podunk departments from all around the state have to send vehicles and personnel to participate? Even just all of the locals is a bunch of equipment and folks (which raises the question of why we have so many police departments in just the Austin Metro -- it has to be around 50 when counting APD/smaller cities/county sheriff departments/school districts/airports/parks/community colleges/hospitals, etc.), but at least those guys have some connection to the fallen that is being honored.
It strikes me as basically a two-day paid vacation for all of the out of towners and a huge expenditure of taxpayer funded resources. And that doesn't even address the disruption of the citizenry before, during, and after the event.
P.S. I was pretty shocked to see all of the para-military equipment that was rolling today. Who knew that we own/need all of that stuff?