I agree, a crime is crime regardless, but it raises a question nonetheless.

Additionally, if I as an individual were to go to the police claiming something similar I suspect they would tell me to claim on insurance, and to try to make myself less of a target by not advertising my identity. I doubt they'd be running fake cars on my commute to try and catch the perp.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the police seem to be going the extra mile (quite literally) in this case.