There is a police substation in Northgate Mall at the north end of N. Buchanan Blvd. This is the same mall involved in Elmo's case. But it's really not on the way to Krogers which is more to the west. But if Kim were looking for the cops she certainly could have easily found them.
Interesting comments at :
http://snarkybastards.com/index.php/2006/08/31/the-duke-case-and-academia/#comments
The New Yorker has an excellent story about the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, which in a just world would be referred to as the Durham Prosecutorial Misconduct Case.
(snip)
And the primary reasons they assumed the players’ guilt? They are almost uniformly white and mostly come from wealthy backgrounds.
In academia these days “privelege” has become a secular equivalent to original sin.
I don't think she wanted to find a cop when she was passing near the substation. I think she figured she could get Mangum out when she got her somewhere where there was a phone, people, a place to hang until someone came for her. She didn't know Mangum wouldn't get out until after she got to Kroger's.