I would say on the whole, no, it wouldn't be a hinderance...................though some of the things you may know, how you approach a problem, may catch some by surprise.
First of all, a background: I was a shore Security Officer for the Navy during the Cold War. When I got out, security companies looked at me with glee because to them, I seemed exactly what they wanted...but that kind of work wasn't what I wanted. These days, I am not police but my research duties often places me among cops and others of similar positions.
Two and a half and a half examples:
1: In a course, 5 years ago, of special police operations, we were going through various emergency scenarios including one where I was "assigned" to the dispatch/public information section. One of the items I had placed in our response to the problem (I believe the problem was a regional disaster due to criminal/terrorist activity) was that "We request that the governor's office send a counterintelligence officer to monitor our communications in case an enemy agent should use this to gain information. Whether or not they send one is up to them, but we make the request." Now, my group comrades were rather surprised and apprehensive of my suggestion but when presented to the course leader, it was generally well received.
2: In an earlier course, one on procedures, we were going over an officer caused death and the aftermath. The cause of such is usually that someone gets shot. I raised my hand and asked what if the death was hand to hand which sort of caught the rest of the class by surprise. The response was that it was still the same procedure and while the class was caught by surprise, the instructor was not since he understood that "often, those picked for military police are the best brawlers".
A note on both these courses: they were upper level courses where most, if not all, the students are police, corrections, agency investigators, or similar.
A half: You may enter "this world" knowing more about how things done in reality than your classmates. In a lower level course, I had an instructor rather ignore my answers once because for the questions he was asking, he was trying to get the point across that one does not crawl in bed with the criminal regardless of what the goal ultimately is. In that case, most of the students were not active or former police and what they knew of the police world was what they had seen on TV. In short, you would already know that it isn't the romance and glamor that a lot believe in.
A half: It may be better not to talk about your former credentials if not asked. Let what is in the present speak for you. I have found that if I say that I was military police before out of the blue, it really does not help the conversation.
Good luck!
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(After Lymangood has expressed that being observer is a welcomed change from busting in doors to being an observer in air support....and a round goes through the canopy, buzzing his head on first mission. "JESUS!"
"Welcome to air support!"––Murphy, (w,stte), "Blue Thunder")