I drive a beater, which is enough to commonly be pulled over with police starting off with a disrespectful demeanor from them. I've gotten "are you employed, son?" as the beginning interaction even before "do you know why I pulled you over?" multiple times. You can watch them re-calibrate in real time when they get the answer "yes, I'm a software engineer".
So initially I don't present as middle class, but once they get a hint of the fact that I am, you can watch them change their behavior nearly instantly. Other times, they don't ask questions like that and have then for instance lied about my drivers license being revoked, taken it, and then pretended like that never happened later, requiring my dash cam footage to even get them to admit they pulled me over.
My friends of color aren't typically even given the chance to re-calibrate their class position to the police by being asked questions like that.
