I don't know. Maybe they hoped he would just die. Maybe they simply could not believe he was asking a question with such a "damned obvious" answer. And let's just say they gave him a mapquest quality answer guiding him to rescue Nirvana. Since they don't have electricity within several hundred miles of Shep's satellite van, do you really think anyone roaming the streets of New Orleans would have heard the answer? The bottomline is, there is just no helping some people.
No see Shep's words to the State police lady was "Give me the info and I will pass it along to these folks right here around me." The Cop told those folks around there nothing he just clamed up and left.
This is not about broadcasting the info this was about telling all those people within shouting distance of the road Shep was on. THose same folks that were saying on Camera "tell us where to go we will go there!"