The delinquent who broke your car window has a pretty good chance of not paying whatever fine he's given (and arresting him when they come across him after a bench warrant is issued still costs money, even if he does eventually pay). You will almost certainly pay your parking ticket promptly and without causing the system to incur additional cost. Going after generally law abiding normal people has a much better ROI.

I hope government doesn’t turn into that. The legal system is supposed to maximize justice, not revenue.

The United States does not maximize revenue in the slightest. We routinely use the justice system to unnecessarily prosecute and incarcerate the poor at a huge expense.

That's because you are looking at the United States as a whole.

This police department ticketed this person for something and gets the revenue of the ticket. All other effects are costs for other departments. Positive on the books.

This Justice processing department gets budgeted for processing the ticket. All other effects are costs for other departments. Positive on the books.

...

This Court department gets budgeted for filing a warrant for this poor person's refusal to pay. The capturing and holding of this person will be a cost for other departments. Positive on the books.

...

This prison gets paid for holding this prisoner, positive on the books.

Every department is doing things which benefit them and the costs for that specific action don't show up negatively (even if they spawn later actions in other departments that generate costs for them). Every department is doing right by itself in the moment, and millions of dollars are lost.

I think you're looking at that from the wrong perspective. It's definitely generating revenue for someone but I think you're picking the wrong someone.

For-profit prison systems and perverse incentives.

In the state of Oregon, they can't prosecute car thieves, unless they literally catch them in the process of breaking in. (or the thief confesses to stealing the car) All they have to say, is they borrowed it from a friend, and didn't realize it was stolen. Something like this might actually be welcomed in Portland to cut down on car theft (its one of the top in the nation, since they literally walk right back out of the police station 2 hours later)

https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2017/11/29/in-portland-you...

Right. It's OK to spy on everyone except the homeless and vagrants, because that might be offensive.