[nkassis]

"I've lived here for nearly eight years and have never had any unpleasant interaction with the police. "

This is a tangent from your original post but I've noticed that Montreal cops seem much more relax than the ones I've dealt with in the US.

This is completely anecdotal but I feel like cops in the US are somewhat more prone to talk and act aggressively when they start interaction with people. I'm wondering if that's a side effect of their training. In general I've had the opposite impression from the Montreal and Canadian cops in general. (Also border patrol in both country are night and day in how they interact with you).

[sliverstorm]

It could just be risk? I don't have numbers on the comparative risk between Canadian cops vs. American cops, but I know that America isn't the safest place to be a cop, and it's well-understood that a cop who does not feel at risk is a friendlier cop.