I'm a little surprised the police didn't already know about that method. Seems like they'd encounter enough CCTV footage that'd it'd be standard training.
I once again overestimate the training levels of the police.
What they really want to say is "We aren't interested in investigating your personal theft. Things get stolen all the time and we really can't be bothered. You are not important to us."
But they can't say that, so they instead throw out some excuse that puts the onus back on the other person.
I dunno. "Don't attribute to malice that which can be sufficiently explained by stupidity." I can totally believe that the average police officer has not thought this through. "5 hours of footage! We don't have 5 hours to look for one bike."
And Detective Conan Doyle O'Brien really did just let his bro fuck around and watch porn and even bring a stripper into the station during footage reviewing hours. Of course, Stuart was quite shocked to hear he was not invited to the stag do later that weekend
It’s a somewhat narrow situation. You won’t always have the object of interest in plain view of a camera. What if it’s behind a door? Well now you do have to scrub through all the footage