And sing a song!
We are teaching our little one that the safest stranger out there is a woman with kids that she approaches herself. The most dangerous stranger out there is a stranger that approaches her. And a uniform is not a sign that you can trust that person.
But yeah, striking the right balance is freakin’ tough
I could not agree more. I made my children understand that under NO circumstances were they to ever approach a security guard or police officer or person in any uniform. They were to approach a woman OR man with their small kids in tow.
And yes, that means all uniforms including armed services, etc. etc. Then again, that mindset came from a childhood spent in Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia where his Gestappolice ruled the streets, and pretty much the worst thing anyone could do was speak to a police officer. Ever. For any reason.
Additionally, if my child were to be lost in a semi-controlled environment like a mall or somesuch, being found by a cop would become problematic. Cops love to call CPS and have a child removed forcibly because the parent “abandoned” the kid. It makes em feel like they’ve saved a kid from their parents. In my experience, kids need to be protected from cops a heck of a lot more than they need to be saved from their own parents, but YMMV. My kids are also another race from me and it would have been patently impossible to prove that they were mine if they got away from me in public.
Moms or Dads with their kid tend to be more intent upon helping find your Mom or Dad who you’ve misplaced. 
As for the OP, if this child does indeed suffer from a diminished capacity, the media will likely play that down because it will make the story non-saleable. It puts such an onus upon his Scoutmasters that it’d make for a more unsavory tale.
Cartooniverse