My last encounter w/ a city police officer went swimmingly.
I was walking home from a friends house (very late at night...into the wee hours of the morning), and I walked by a cop car parked in a driveway, facing the street, lights off, a few blocks away from my house. I didn't even see it until I was right on top of it, and it sort of startled me because of that.
But I just kept on walking. About 30 seconds after I walked past, I heard him pull out of the drive and onto the street. As he approached, he slowed down to match the pace of my walking. His window was down, and I heard him ask me something, but I didn't hear right away, so I took the headphones out of my ears...
"How old are you son?"
"22"
"Where you coming from?"
"I'm just headed back home."
"Yeah, but where are you coming from?"
"Oh, sorry....my friends house"
"You haven't been breaking into any houses, have you?"
"ummm....nope. Pretty sure I don't do that....
It's against my principles."
"Okay. We've just had a couple of reports of breaking an entering in the area tonight..."
"I assure you I know nothing about that....I don't condone theft...I'm a Libertarian."
"ARE YA!? Good man, Good man..." (giving me the thumbs up...i was actually a bit surprised at his enthusiastic reaction)
"Well, be sure to let us know if you see any thing suspicious going on."
"Yeah, absolutely. Will do."
Then he accelerated and left me alone.
Could have been just a bit different if I were black, I suppose.
Who knows.
That was the first encounter I had w/ a city police officer in this area.
I live on a main street, and I see them cruise by all the time. I generally don't even get a second glance, if I even get one.