What do you do when all the polite explanations does is earn you a finger. Not a rhetorical question, wish I knew the answer.

The police is not that well respected by the people and rarely do the cops work for the people at least for their day to day interactions. People see them as rotten institutions there to only to collect bribe and do the bidding of the political party in power. Unless you have some clout even registering a complaint with them like a burglary or theft is a challenge. They would do everything in their capacity to prevent that from happening. Unless the commissioner is your neighbor or a buddy you will have a tough time.

This is harsh on police officers who genuinely want to make a difference, but they are a shrinking breed. Even a driving motivation to become a police officer is for the opportunity to get bribes. Lower level recruitment by the police are a complete sham riddled with corruption. A constable bribes to get the job.

Polite explanation works when there is some mutual respect.