Dr. Pepper,
Loved your post, and the attitude you espouse. I too have been trying to make an effort to be friendlier with strangers.
At the risk of being a nit-picker, let me pick on one little aspect of what you wrote. I also try to make an effort to extend extra courtesy when I encounter policemen and I also tell my kids to. But I do so becasue they are public servants doing a job most of us would be too terrified to consider. In other words, I thank them because they deserve it. If that, one day, spares me from a ticket, I’ll thank Hashem for the chesed. (My real prayer is that I and my fellow observant Jews will be respectful enough of the law to walk the extra half block rather than park illegally in the first place.)
I realize that you most likely share the same motivations, I just think your choice of words might have given the wrong impression.
Good Shabbos.