IMO the "good cops" that you run into occaisionally are the "rookies". Once the job beats them down for a while they change. Some of my friends from childhood became cops as adults and I can assure you that their values have changed.
I haven't had many experiences with cops other than traffic stops. One incident that stands out for me. Once I was driving on a road at nite in a construction zone. It was really late like 2am. As I drive by the cop he flags me down and tells me I'm driving in the wrong lane.
I say the sign at the beginning of the zone points to the lane I'm in. He says yeah I know we haven't finished setting up yet. I say I can help you move the sign if you want so no one else makes the same mistake. He gets really mad and yells at me to get outta there.
That interchange didn't do much for my opinion of cops.
I remember there was a nice crackdown on speeding and noisy bikes in Nassau County, Long Island, NY. They made ALL bikes pullover and checked for documents, modified exhausts etc. My friend being one of the many pulled over told me that there were cagers far louder than many of the bikes there and were going well above the limit... gosh nazis.
One thing you can count on: You push a man too far, and sooner or later he'll start pushing back.
I've been on both sides, seen $hitty cops and nice cops.
I think most of them are the 1st kind though.
Oh and I second the "It's all who you know" thing. My dad was a Firefighter and FD and PD are like bro's wherever you go. Not once did my dad get a ticket when he got pulled over as long as he "accidently" showed his badge.
I've had a few encounters with LEO, most of which while clearly labeled as out of state. This has made for some interesting encounters although I have yet to earn a ticket for anything. My favorite:
I was driving the old cage back from visiting some friends in Southern Indiana on my way to Indianapolis (with my MN plates) when I notice the car starting to overheat and slowly lose power. (Thing was junk that eventually LITERALLY fell apart.) Turns out the coolant return nozzle had broke at some point causing a hot situation. I decide to pull into a closed gas station, as apposed to the open one accross the street because this has happened for awhile now and I had just added coolant at the last gas stop meaning I just had to let it cool. I throw some junk in the back seat, pop the hood and recline for a bit of a nap. It is now about 1 am and I can understand how this might look suspicions, but i figured the smoke from the hood would answer any questions. Nope, next thing I know my 15 second nap has been ended by a flood light trained on my vehicle. I figure it is a cop and just wait for instructions of some sort. About a minute passes and nothing, so I hop out of my car...(again I realize this would make someone maybe even a bit more nervous). THe kind officer exits his vehicle with gun holster open and palm on handle. Informs me to stand where I am and proceeds to ask a few questions. Eventually I give him my ID and he asks me what I was doing behind the store...If you can be bothered to scroll up you will notice I haven't been outside of three feet of my vehicle. I inform him of this and am immeadiately told i am lying...our friendly officer offers me many chances to change my story, admit to sneaking around, maybe cop a plea, but i persist in my "lies" and he calls for back up. This back up was the redeeming thinga bout this whole wonderful night, our friendly LEO's Sgt. arrives and takes one look at my smoking "get away" vehicle and just starts laughing. Mr. Friendly gets to check things out while the Sgt. talks to me about the car, checks under the hood to help find the problem, and generally just helps me get things under control. I end up calling AAA under a recommendation from the Sgt. and end up home a lot later than I'd hoped but generally ok.
So long story short I think that as long as you follow the law, you wont have any problems and on topic....I've never had a problem with LEOs in my 2k miles of experience in the last 4 months on the bike. There's still time though....
"I like a man who grins when he fights"
-Winston Churchill
Do a couple ride-a-longs with Law Enforcement in a pretty large city and you will probably encounter a few contacts with people to see why some cops act the way they act.
Some cops may act like dickheads when they pull you over for the most minimal thing, but in the academy peace officers are trained to never get "comfortable" on any routine traffic stop. Its when you get comfortable that your life will be taken from you from a felon in a car to a punk kid trying to get out of a traffic stop.
And as far as police officers not responding to calls for whatever reason, it usually varies on department. Your traffic enforcement officers will not respond to house calls. Their primary duty is strictly for traffic enforcement and accidents. Your narcotics and k-9 units will not respond to traffic accidents because its not in the departments best interest to have their specialized officers assigned to something that your ordinary sworn officer could do. so the cop you see sitting on the side of the road may be a lazy bastrd, or he may not be clear to handle your call.
Many departments also have different approaches on how to approach "crime". You have your community service oriented department, your preventive patrol department, and your service oriented departments. Each have their own unique way of handling your streets....i'm sure most of you can tell the style your department uses based upon your contacts with your LEO's.
They are people with different attitudes/behaviors, just like us. The biggest thing police officers use when handling their jobs is discretion. If he/she uses their discretion to let you off, consider it your lucky day...otherwise they have every right to uphold their duty and cite you or whatever fits the handling of the call.
Unfortunately, corruption is what gives most LEAs a bad stereotype. It only takes a few to ruin a whole department.