Fun fact: in the US, police are not legally required to help you if they don't feel like it.
Their obligation is to protect the public "at large," not individuals, which seems like a pretty weird technical designation. Because it is. Because it basically leaves the definition of maintaining public order up to individual departments, police unions, and sympathetic judges. And guess what kinds of crimes they consider indicative of a breakdown in law and order?
Guess.
If they had a legal obligation to protect actual people, it would be real hard to round up homeless people, and tackle teenagers with spray paint.
Here's the delightful case (don't read it) where they were given permission to ignore you being tortured for 14 hours, even after you call them twice, if they decide you aren't important.
(Also a caveat here is that they ARE obligated to protect you if you have a "special relationship" with them. Which sounds nuts, but "special relationship" in law only means you and them are involved in some specific situation where your immediate safety depends on them. Like if they're driving you somewhere, or they brought you into a building in handcuffs. But you'd have to survive whatever they "let happen to you" to sue them. And it would be your word against theirs, because obviously, their body cams would be off then, gotta save those batteries for emergencies, you know?)
