"The kid's personal life is none of the cop's business. If the kid doesn't wish to discuss, that should be the end of it. "I don't wish to discuss my personal life with you officer" is a respectful enough way to tell the officer exactly that."
I'm usually one of the guys on cop threads defending the cops. Not this time. Your post explains why. Where that kid was headed was none of that cop's business.
You know, this reminds me of a cop in my small hometown who was a Good Cop and remembered fondly by many. When I was a becoming-wild very young teen with wild connections (!), he knew who I was, but then again, he knew a lot of kids. One time he saw me at a football game; I was wearing a hippie-dippile hand-made leather necklace with a pouch that had an abalone shell in it, that was sentimental. But it looked like exactly the kind of place you'd hide drugs, and this was the early 70s. This is a football game where girls mainly wandered around to socialize, rather than watch the game. We were potential trouble, for sure. He was a sociable friendly guy who knew everybody
and their siblings. Somehow or another we got to talking, and he smoothly enticed me to show him what was in the necklace before I even realized it.
He was a good cop because he knew the real bad kids from the fake ones, and he didn't have to provoke a thing.