A friend of mine had his car stolen, his ex had a key and wanted to make him mad. We live in a rural area so the sheriff just dropped it off at his house once they recovered it. He even put gas in it and invited us to shoot at his range.

I've also seen cops change tires and things like that.

If you're in a more rural area - it will vary. I grew up with a LEO and in a rural area - so I'm familiar with how some cops will act in rural areas. There's a higher chance that if you're an officer in a rural area - you also live in that specific area that you're policing. Whereas in cities - it's very often that you're policing in a region where you don't vote or live in.

Even for people I knew in law enforcement in the rural areas - they didn't like to live in the area they were policing because of the consequences. You're now a local who has to live with the consequences of how you've treated people during your job.

This is why in the 1990's there was a big push by cities to require police officers to live in the cities where they work.

That was fine for a while, but eventually it got hard for cities to attract new cops, a lot of them removed those rules.

My stolen scooter (like a vespa) was only “recovered” after the police (or someone) found it totaled on the side of the road. The police then had it shipped to an impound lot. I had to pay the lot $400 for the courtesy of them storing it, and I told them I didn’t want my totaled scooter and they could send it to a salvage yard. My immediate impression was that the police officers were making money off this scenario.

Mine showed up because it was parked in a side street with the windows down in the rainy season, and an officer on his morning bike ride took a quick peak and saw the keybarell broken.

I think there is only so much they can do from a systemic point of view, since they can't put the manpower into looking for them. When they are recovered it's usually because it's related to some other police activity that occurred and it was collateral to that. Same with bikes I think.

The issue is it can end up in an impound lot or tow yard and there seems to be no systematic VIN checking. The car could be auctioned without your knowledge.

I always figured it was supposed to not work like this, as the title change is the one place you can catch it, but I guess not? Must be reporting it as abandoned when it really isn't.

Hm yeah, it would be surprising if a VIN intact car went to auction but I suppose the US has a lot of states and systems to communicate between.

There are a lot more incentives to find a car than a bike. The money involved is higher, social risks too (less road kills due to a crazy bike driver). There's also less institutions at play, no rich bike insurance companies. Also most bikes are untraceable unlike car with plate numbers. And logistically it's harder to hide a car somehow (still possible of course).

I agree institutions are absurd and don't care enough though.

> Law enforcement and the general institution of law does not care.

TLDR: Don't blame the street-level bureaucrats and everyone in the institution for policy failures.

You fail to understand that this is a public policy issue. I bet you the average individual cop does care. I use the term average so people don't resort to extremes (good cop or bad cop). His workload is so high that your issue falls below his threshold. It's not his fault, it's the fault of local public policy. It's undermanned and underfunded.

I remember my brother yelling at an Amazon driver for speeding. He's incentivized to do so by his employer. Yes, the driver probably shouldn't speed, but he's also not making very much money and needs this job. His employer is likely more guilty for not providing additional drivers, at cost, to allow safety. But that would be a market imperfection due to externalities which are not regulated (the externality being public safety - the cost of which the private institution generally does not bear). The same type of issue occurrs in the public policy arena, but the failure is on the lack of funding towards a known issue which results in poor services to the public. No, people cannot do more with less with zero losses.