Their reasoning was that the officer might be one of the "chip on his shoulder" types, in which case you would need to take a different conversational stance than you would with a more laid-back person, in attempting to talk your way out of a ticket.

I would agree wholeheartedly. As I stated earlier in this thread, unless I was really given a hard time by the motorist, they would wind up with a written warning. This served several purposes. First, it allowed others to see that enforcement was occurring and caused them to modify their behavior accordingly (at least while a marked car was in sight ). Second, the vehicle stop was documented so that a record of the incident existed should questions arise in the future. The important thing here is that the public was served without the issuance of a citation in most cases and my officers remained free to conduct routine preventative patrols in residential areas and to answer calls for service.

That having been said, I have been told by many officers that they have made up their minds as to whether or not to issue a citation before they even get out of their patrol cars. Because of this fact, the safest bet when faced with one of these unpleasant situations is to err on the side of caution and be very respectful to the officer at the scene (while quietly documenting the circumstances of the alleged violation for a challenge in the most appropriate forum - i.e. a court of law).