I won't argue law points with an officer but I will demand respect and sane behavior. You would be surprised what mentioning that you are willing to file a written complaint does to their attitude. They know that those sargents stripes or LT bars have just gone bye bye.
I've only done it once and had my attorney with me. The Chief came down to see if he could talk me out of it. I made a deal with him that I would withdraw it in one year if there wasn't any other reports filed on the officer.
One year and one day later I went in and wrote out the form to officially withdraw it after verifying that his record had stayed clean.
About 13 years ago I was on a busy road and got in a wrong turn lane that would have put me on an interstate. I looked at the traffic and it was clear so I signaled and pulled back out to the next block. A city cop pulled me over and asked what I was doing and I told him.
Technically I had not broken any laws but it was risky move had traffic been coming. Had traffic been coming I wouldn't have tried it I told him. He said well you know what you did was dangerous so I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. All of the sudden in a Gomer Pyle voice he said fer shame fer shame fer shame laughing and said now get out of here. A cop who got his point across and we both had a good laugh.