People see risks differently. My daughters were 9 and 7 when their mother died. So I was the one going to the PTA meetings and involved with all the other activities. Even though I always made my own judgments about how to handle things myself, I always watched what the other parents (mostly moms) did, hoping to learn more.
I live in the suburbs. Some of the places the kids went were on main roads, but they had a good sidewalk. My kids have lots of friends, and I got to know almost all the other parents. Only one out of maybe 30 or more pairs of parents would let the kids do what your daughter does at that age. Watching your spouse drop dead can make one over protective, but of course the risk does not change. That's why I was wondering about the police officers perception of risk.
I would guess that almost all of the other parents seeing your daughter ride to school have a different perception of risk than you do. That probably won't change. My limited interaction with that kind of thing is that the officer needed to do something because of the complaints. And he probably was doing what he thought was the right thing anyway. Do you know any of the other parents on that road? Might be interesting to see why they have that opinion.
I wonder how many people in this thread have kids around that age. It would be interesting to see what that does to their point of view.
in the 1950's my parents let me walk a few blocks to elementary school. I walked to school with a huge Bowie Knife ( about a 6 inch blade) in the sheath on my belt**********?? I don't remember what happened at school when I got there. It was about 5-6 blocks. There was an adult crossing guard at the only road crossed.