That doesn't surprise me about officers creating more positive relationships after building a regular relationship. I think we're all predisposed to that inclination build a barrier between the unfamiliar and us, no matter what our backgrounds are. I was a year into a PhD program in postcolonial studies, a discipline which at least aspires to a greater awareness of and sensitivity to issues of race, culture and religion, when I had my first regular interaction with an Arab woman who wore a hijab and was more, for lack of a better word, traditional in her Muslim beliefs. I discovered a person with a sense of religion and family that might be praised as traditional American "family values" if it had been wrapped in a more familiar package, and I found myself letting go of fear and suspicion that, frankly, I wasn't conscious of. Assuming "different needs" is such a great way to put it.

I'll definitely check out Bob Lambert; his work sounds interesting.