The answer is quite mundane. I’ve a few friends in a (non-US) police force. The answer is that the rich/powerful are annoying as hell to go against.
They either know the law, or pay someone to know it for them. They can make obviously illegal things legal on paper. They can also nitpick everything. E.g. spending £5K on lawyers to get out of a £100 fine, since they don’t want to get the points. Any procedural mistakes, or paperwork errors can kill a case, or at least drag it out for years.
They also have contacts that can apply pressure. When their wife knows your boss’s, boss’s boss’s wife, they can make your life and career VERY uncomfortable.
End result, most officers learn to pick their battles with the rich and powerful. They will make your life hard, and will get away without everything being perfect.
In practice this can easily turn into taking the easy road. Even when the rich aren’t even technically in the right.
The answer is quite mundane. I’ve a few friends in a (non-US) police force. The answer is that the rich/powerful are annoying as hell to go against.
They either know the law, or pay someone to know it for them. They can make obviously illegal things legal on paper. They can also nitpick everything. E.g. spending £5K on lawyers to get out of a £100 fine, since they don’t want to get the points. Any procedural mistakes, or paperwork errors can kill a case, or at least drag it out for years.
They also have contacts that can apply pressure. When their wife knows your boss’s, boss’s boss’s wife, they can make your life and career VERY uncomfortable.
End result, most officers learn to pick their battles with the rich and powerful. They will make your life hard, and will get away without everything being perfect.
In practice this can easily turn into taking the easy road. Even when the rich aren’t even technically in the right.