They left me alone, and found the perp three months later.
Good for you! Sometimes the best way to deal with bullies is to call their bluff! Especially if the bullies carry BADGES, which an astonishing number of bullies seem to do these days.
Sounds like SDPD has a very small bag of tricks that they just use over and over. I think if DW had handled them the way you did, no one on this forum would ever have heard of him.