This is especially true in jurisdictions where private prisons operate. Very (too) often the people who own the prisons and profit off of them have close ties to people of authority and power in local government. If you are skeptical, consider: otherwise the prison contract would have gone to someone else with closer ties or more leverage.

Corruption is rampant in the "developed" world but we just use different words for it.

I had not considered this hypothesis. I think my area may be small enough where it's not just a crime against me, but a crime against the community. For what it's worth, I hope your situation gets better. That has to be unsettling.

Police are revenue generators. It's the same in both big cities and small towns.

A town of 300 people I grew up next to, always had their one cop ticketing every car that didn't slow down from the posted 55 mph (but honestly, it was always faster) to 30 mph, or accelerated over 30 before they passed the city limits sign.

The city government loved that guy, because he brought in thousands of dollars every week.

When the NYPD threw a fit over de Blasio, they famously refused to arrest anyone unless "it was absolutely necessary". Why? The police union wanted to hurt NYC's[0] budget.[0] It's the same reason why civil forfeiture is so prevelant.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/the-ben...

There are some towns where the police have so little headcount that they have enough "real crime" to keep their officers as busy as they want to be and so unpredictably the officers would rather bust drug traffickers and respond to violence than write tickets. These tend to be poor urban communities where the cops (very much like teachers) only work there for a short time early in their careers.

But yes, in the general case you're right that law enforcement is a revenue generator.

> your situation

Unfortunately this situation is by no means unique.

> That has to be unsettling.

And now you know why there has been a growing movement predicated on the idea that the vast sums of money we spend on police may not be well-spent.

What's the alternative? Build a citizens' militia? Hire a private security firm?

Why pay cops to pull people over when a camera can do it for far less and not cost the manpower? Where I live, you get an automated ticket for even 3 over the limit. The neighborhoods are actually safe to walk around because people aren’t going 50 in a 30. The cops actually wander around and talk to people, helping them instead of being seen as ticket-givers and a potential bad day.

Because a camera doesn't have a boot to lick.

The police get a lot more leeway to do bad things because some percent of society just defaults to giving them the benefit of the doubt.