Don T, I didn't take what you said as sarcasm but just a little broad. Police in the US do not pick up someone walking alone and deliver them anywhere. Not in my experience.

I have had a police car stop and ask me if I was OK. I have had the cop tell me that he'll keep an eye out for my return. I have never been threatened by them in any way but I have also never been told I couldn't/shouldn't walk there.

I have had a cop ask me if I was being harassed by another pedestrian and being assured that I could handle myself went on his way.

Ebbie, who now lives in an area where people/women walk alone any hour of the day or night but lived also in Oregon, Michigan and Virginia where she was more circumspect.