I am a law abiding citizen and only had a handful of situations when I had to deal with police and all of them were absolutely awful:
1) found a wallet with some documents,cards,etc. Went to the police station just to be told they don't have facilities to store such items and suggested to destroy the cards,as the person would have changed them all anyway. When I visited the same station second time, I noticed an entire safe with a massive label saying 'lost items'..
2) My bag got stolen just outside an office building. Went to the police to report it just to be told that maybe the street cleaner swept it away. Told him that it all happened in front of a CCTV,so it'd be quite easy to figure out who did it.Came up with zillions of excuses. Ended up going to the office building and talking to the security guy myself.Turns out they have a dummy camera outside,even showed the internal coverage on his screens.
3) Customer went bananas and threatened (over the phone) to kill everybody in the office, put bombs,etc. Had to report to the police. The whole thing lasted two hours.The policewoman was like: you know, people make jokes, sometimes they say things they don't mean,etc. So why do you want to report it,etc.. Eventually she took all the details and said: well,you know,if he tries this again, or if he shows up at the office, here's the case reference, call on this number,give the case ref and we'll update the case with new info.Yes,sure,I was thinking, a guy shows up with a gun at my office,I try to escape and call police while I run: 'oh hi officer,I have an update on a case.Yes,I do have a case reference..
The experiences of some friends are usually much worse.