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Sounds like maybe you don't have any friends who are LEO, who can give you the real scoop about why they aren't able to respond to low priority crimes.
I don't know what your profession is, but in any line of work there comes a point where if your boss gives you too much to do (or in the case of our current police department, is understaffed due to budget limitations) you have to start prioritizing what you work on.. and other things drop off the radar.
Please don't assume that he's not willing to do his job. There are a half a dozen other higher priority crimes that police have to respond to with limited staff. They can't attend to lower level crimes. Not that they don't want to... they just plain don't have the time.
And personally (even though it would suck to have a catalytic converter stolen from any of my vehicles) I'd rather have police available to handle life threatening crimes in their limited bandwidth schedules.
Regardless of whether is was done calmly or politely, I still don't think it was fair to call that officer out and accuse him of something that most likely is completely out of his control, and most likely is just as discouraging and frustrating for him as it is for you.
Actually I do have friends and family that are current and former LE.
Your assumption is just that.
If we don't share our dissatisfaction with front line and command officers how do they know what to tell their supers up the chain of command?
You are correct, they should be free to pursue more serious issues in their limited time.
But when did we decide that property crimes are going to slide?
Better yet, the thieves get away with their nonsense, while law abiding citizens are held to a different standard.
Either we have a baseline that we are all held to or it is anarchy 24/7. Which we are closer to than we have ever been.
The issue is complex but the direct effect of electing incompetent bureaucrats repeatedly and expecting different results has led us to this point in our history as a society in Oregon.
LE isn't supported by their supers. They are crapped on by the general public. We've lowered the bar for personal accountability so even the losers get a trophy. The legalization of drugs has opened the floodgates to open air drug dealing and usage. LE agency budgets have been slashed while the expectations have doubled.
It's a crap show all the way around.