Possible benefits include:
-- Getting a straight answer.
-- Breaking the mental model whereby the police are dehumanizing you and/or lumping you into a certain profile.
-- Getting a response so nasty it's easier to get them into trouble later on. :)
I've actually worked with the Police. ALL training is about asserting power when dealing with suspects (a suspect is anyone you stop or talk to - no matter what the circumstances; think about how many people reporting a crime actually end up being arrested themselves due to something they say which incriminates them, even in something tangential and unrelated to what they are reporting).
The moment someone tries to reassert control, training is to respond with additional aggressive responses to overwhelm resistance. Call in backup, draw a taser/gun/baton, physically take hold of the person etc.
Try pulling things like talking about your consulting projects and asking for a guarantee about making a meeting and you'll be lucky not to be face down on the ground in under 5 seconds and spend the next 24 hours sitting in a cell.
In all my years, I think I probably met less than 5 colleagues who could proportionately and reasonably interact with people, defuse tensions and remain in control (of both the situation and themselves). All the rest relied solely on the power assertion training and some couldn't even interact with other police officers without trying to assert power over each other. That always got nasty, especially when they did it to someone who, like them, didn't know how to back down or defuse a situation.
Unless you have a crack team of lawyers monitoring your every move, your best approach is to be compliant and non-confrontation. Remember as much detail as you can (especially names/numbers) and make a formal complaint later on, via a lawyer if possible, once you're out of custody (and preferably out of easy reach - remember the police are 24x7, they can expend huge resources to hound you out of sheer vexatiousness. You have to sleep. They don't.).
Haven't tried that with police, but it worked in other cases where I had to interact with people who had the means to ruin my day.
Probably it helps that I'm a 6'4" white educated male, with a nice smile I think.
You can connect with anyone on a personal level but you need to have people skills. If you're confrontational and non compliant you're setting yourself up for this power contest you can't win.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-o...
Anyhow my point is the outcome isn't pre-determined and you have some ability to influence how things go by using some people skills.
-- Getting a response so nasty it's easier to get "you" into trouble "now"
I have tried this (I am from India). Any question to authority, whether police or TSA or Immigration officers will make sure that instead of ~30 mins, you will end up wasting 3-4 hours.
Of course, results might be different if you belong to the same race as officer. But that was the point of the article.
If it's "challenge", I understand your point. If it's "question", then even though I'm a white male who's unlikely to be adversely profiled, I'm still tempted to wonder whether you're doing it wrong.
I guess, it is difficult (not impossible) to empathize with what other people go through, when you are able to breeze through such interactions. Just to give an example, I (a male) can point out that women should present ideas in a better way when their ideas are trivially dismissed in meetings. But that would be brushing aside the sexism in workplace/society. Similarly, in this case we should look at the numbers, which overwhelmingly suggest that people of color (or a specific religion/region) are questioned much more frequently. I am sure that many of such people can speak with clarity and question with respect.
1. Avoid truly terrible outcomes (being shot, beaten, framed for a crime, etc.).
2. Get re-categorized.
There are many stories in the news of people of color failing to achieve these goals, even when they are pleasant and polite. But there are few stories of pleasant, polite interaction making their situations WORSE ... except that if your politeness is ignored, it can be dangerous to repeat yourself, because that can indeed be construed as a challenge.
I know the comment was tongue-in-cheek, but it bears mentioning: when dealing with the police, your objective should be to escape the situation unscathed, not to provoke them. Remember that criminal charges, severe injury, or even death are possible consequences of any encounter with law enforcement.