> I've seen them actually acknowledge that they can't pull people over even if they wanted to because of the lack of road shoulders...

I had a cop light me up on 83. I was between Cold Spring and Northern and so I went to Northern, exited 83 and pulled over where there was a nice big shoulder. Cop went ballistic on me accusing me of ignoring him.

I got off with a warning. So maybe he recognized I was looking out for his well being.