In the collar communities of Chicago, the cops can be pretty cool, too. I was pulled over one time in Naperville, found out I had a procedural license suspension (an unpaid NY state ticket), and the cop said, "Clear it up. I'll check next time I see you around."
In Atlanta, I would have been dragged from my car, swallowed some pavement, been booked and thrown in jail, and my car would have been impounded.
Somewhat agree. I was stopped by Atlanta police once in college for going through a red light - the light was yellow and the car in front of me panicked because it saw a police car at the intersection, slowed down and left me in the middle of the intersection as the light turned red.
Anyway, the cop actually made me get out of the car, patted me down for weapons and made me sit in the back of his cruiser while he wrote me a ticket. At that time I was a nerdy looking, white-bread college student in a suit coming back from an interview that weighed about 140 lbs so I hardly fit a profile. I got the last laugh though as I contested it in court and he was 5 minutes late so he wasn't there to contest the charge when I plead not-guilty.
Got pulled over once between Atlanta and Athens for speeding - I passed a police car since I had turned on the wrong road and thought the speed limit was 65 rather than 55. I insisted to the officer that he was wrong about the speed limit but when then he realized I was confused about which highway I was on. He was cool about - laughed and gave me a warning.
I thought about sending an email to sheriff's department letting them know about how polite and understanding the officer had been, but I figured it would just get him in trouble for not writing me a ticket.