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But let us all be clear that police kindness and levity are just like police brutality..isolated incidents and not the norm...hence no duty to inform.
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Cops are people too. No one should ever believe they are a bastion of honesty, civility or honor. There are plenty of bad cops. And there are plenty of good cops too. The problem is that you can't tell whether you're dealing with a jerk or good guy from the first 30 seconds of interaction. And that is when you're going to have to make a decision on what to tell the cop. I always assume the cop I am dealing with is looking to jam me up and am pleasantly surprised when this is not the case. I withhold as much information as possible, until it becomes absolutely necessary to tell the officer. I'm not going to break the law or lie but until the officer asks me to step outside or requires my license and consequent CCW, I'm not volunteering anything. In at least half of my police interactions, they never even asked for a drivers license.
My brother (a cop) stopped a guy in the middle of a snow storm, parked in the middle of the road with his lights on and not moving. He was drunk and asleep. My brother was as polite as pie and nice as possible. And he threw out the slimmest hope that this guy wasn't going to go to jail. BUT he was 20 miles from the station, in the middle of nowhere with no backup on duty. So he was not going to rile this guy. He got him cuffed and into the car. This was the guy's 3rd DUI, so he is going to jail. But my brother was as calm as a cucumber, telling him it would all be worked out. If you mean, "go to jail", than yes, it will all get worked out. And that is fine by me. My point is to illustrate that cops will say what they think they need to say, depending upon the situation. They are concerned about their safety. Great. I am concerned about mine. My interests and the interests of a cop pulling me over are unlikely to be the same. Finally, it has been long accepted that they can blatantly lie to suspects if they feel it necessary.
I like my brother. He's a good cop. But as a general rule, I don't trust cops and I don't volunteer anything. And it's not because I have anything against cops or think we should not have them, it is just that there are plenty of bad, dangerous and corrupt cops out there.