On my car, in order to lock the doors, you’d have to lean over to the center console. No switches or levers on the door itself. You basically have to sit down in the seat to reach it.
I leave my car unlocked pretty much all the time. Back before I bought everything on credit card, I’d have change in the center. Some mornings, I’d notice that the change had been riffled through, and there seemed to be less silver in there. Big deal, some teenager got a couple bucks in quarters.
Or they see something in your car that is more valuable to them than your window is. I used to lock my car at work, but stopped that after finding my window broken. Cost me a whole lot more to replace than the change that they got.
That’s fine, and I’ve signed a form from the local PD that allows them to do so, and to even enter and investigate if they see something that they deem suspicious (and to call me). But that’s at my business. I would never sign up for something like that at my house. I see my car as being a whole lot closer to my house than my business in terms of my personal property.
So, if they see or smell something, you are claiming that they will just completely forget it?
Or, will they make a note of your license plate, and pull you over the next chance they get?
Some of us are not as keen as you on always assuming only the most noble of intentions of authority figures and giving them absolute trust in their motives.
Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised that some use it as a pretext to plant contraband so they can follow it up with a bust. Believe it or not, there are bad cops out there. There’s a whole thread if you need to see some examples.
Yeah, cops do a number of things to proactively stop wasting their time, they are often not in the best interest of the people they are supposed to protect, but only in the best interest of the officer wanting to get back to wasting their time on their own terms.
The only reason I would make a police report about such a break in to my car is I needed to do so for insurance purposes. I would only have to do that if they had broken my window in order to gain entry. Back when that happened before, I had a beater car with state minimum insurance, I didn’t bother anyone with it. Now I’ve got a better car with comprehensive insurance, so I’d have to waste an officer’s time to come out and take a police report.
They sell devices, meant as a survival tool in case your car goes into the water, that very easily, and fairly quietly, break a window. I’m not going to link to it here, but a simple search finds one for about $6. A locked door does very little to deter someone who wants to get into your car.
I don’t leave my keys or valuables in my car. I’m not exactly how hard it is to hotwire it, but it’s a whole lot harder than breaking the window. If someone is willing and able to defeat the ignition lock, then I don’t see a window being as big a deterrent as you may think.