Yeah, some officers are extremely good at avoiding work. 
Still, this case is threatening people to make them actively change the facts. Different, I'd say?
A friend got his expensive car radio stolen, years ago. Police told him he'd have to pay for towing- and lab expenses, if he wanted the car fingerprinted.
He had theft insurance, so he called them. The insurance refused to pay these expenses, but paid for the kit. Of course, today car radios no longer get stolen, as they are useless after theft, because of the security code needed.
Not sure what this has to do with COVID, but perhaps police are not enthusiastic about even more person to person interactions.
The Los Angeles Police Department has suffered from chronic underfunding and under-staffing in recent years.[72] Compared to most other major cities in the United States, and though it is the third largest police department in the country, Los Angeles has historically had one of the lowest ratios of police personnel to population served.[72] Former police chief William J. Bratton made enlarging the department one of his top priorities (Bratton has been quoted as saying, "You give me 4,000 more officers and I'll give you the safest city in the world").[73]
Los Angeles has one police officer for every 426 residents.[72] As a point of comparison, New York City has one police officer for every 228 residents.[72] For Los Angeles to have the same ratio of officers to residents as New York City, the LAPD would need to have nearly 17,000 officers. Further points of comparison include Chicago, which has a ratio of one officer per 216 citizens and Philadelphia, whose officer per citizen ratio is 1 to 219.[72]
In recent years, the department had been conducting a massive recruiting effort, with a goal of hiring an additional 1,500 police officers. The city has three specialized agencies, not affiliated with the LAPD directly, which serve the Port, the Airport, and the Unified School District.
===
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has reduced its inmate population by 6% in the last three weeks and Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said her office would consider reducing bail for thousands of nonviolent offenders.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-20/california-releases-more-jail-inmates-amid-coronavirus-crisisOfficers may not be enthusiastic about catch and release for less than felony crimes.
===
I am too lazy to search out more references but seem to recall increase in petit crimes (like breaking into cars) in San Francisco when police and DA relaxed aggressive policing of street people. (sorry for a too simple answer).
====
I have been robbed several times over the years and do not recall ever having a very satisfactory result from police regarding non-violent property crimes. For yet another personal anecdote, one time at a NAMM show in Chicago (last century), me and my hotel roommate were robbed while we slept. This was back when hotels still used physical keys, and this miscreant apparently got ahold of a spare key to our room. The house detective accused us of inviting a hooker to our room and falling asleep... loser. Of course this was a life lesson about using the door chain backup lock, since that lesson I always use the chain.
I was most disappointed about losing my money clip that was my dead father's. Cash is replaceable.
==
I am generally supportive of police and all first responders, that have a difficult job with limited resources, even harder these days. I wouldn't want to do that job. Of course there are bad apples in any profession but the vast majority are good people.
JR
PS: It is not that unusual for people in power to suffer from bad judgement and over reach, even with good intentions (several state governors are getting pushback for overly restrictive policies). Almost on topic the current debate about reopening the economy involves tension between maximum safety, and best overall long term outcome.
April 15, 2006, 05:51:35 PM