I don't want to be the guy defending cops, but there is usually more than one officer in a squad car. There is no rule against a passenger being distracted.
I think higher numbers would lead to reform on its own. When you're scraping by at the bare minimum, a lot of stuff gets overlooked just to maintain numbers.
More cops would make it a lot easier to have better standards, and raise the average competency level.
In Europe, it's exactly because they want witnesses, cops' words don't carry more weight than yours by default, so if they ticket you, they want at least two testimonies on their side.
I did more research and I found out it actually isn't standard where I live now, I am misremembering probably because I haven't had many interactions with police here. This is a somewhat standard practice in major cities though which would explain why I was familiar with it. I will admit copaganda probably reinforced that though, most media I've seen does depict 2 officers. But whatever, I'm always happy to learn a new reason to hate cops.