I would imagine 'line' police officers are unused to the technological aspects of what's going on and are rewarded/punished for shallow productivity numbers ("a

I would imagine 'line' police officers are unused to the technological aspects of what's going on and are rewarded/punished for shallow productivity numbers ("arrests per day"). I don't think it's necessary to posit a 'dark movie thriller' thing where cops are on the take - from a freakin' e-bike chop shop ffs. Both Occam's Razor and Hanlon's Razor suggest that the effort involved here is a combination of laziness, unfamiliarity and institutional disincentives. That said, a higher level commander may be judged by area crime stats and frankly those guys have rocks in their heads if they aren't cleaning up the fences. A lot of jurisdictions have pretty strict laws about this sort of place being meant to know where their stock is from. If you've got the will to deal with this stuff, you roll in every few days, ask the same questions and shut the doors when the staff don't have good answers.