To follow up: Did another search and found several articles (in first 3 pages via yahoo) of people getting rabbies shots after a squirrel bite. Rabbies shots are no joke. That said, also found many govt and medical sites that said rabbies shots are NOT indicated for a squirrel bite.
Can’t blame the cop for not being a doc or animal expert. If the choice is between a kid going through rabbies shots and pepper spraying a squirrel, that’s an easy choice...
As the post above yours points out you have to get the rabies series of shots if you can’t recover the animal to be on the safe side so actually having rabies doesn’t matter. A scared squirrel could be hard to catch too.