I doubt this is as much of a problem of the police officers as the American legal system.

Surely the cost of a movie ticket is better settled in a small claims court than with police intervention and a criminal case. The theatre would have surely got their money even without going to court, now they get nothing instead. It's perverse, just like debtor's prison, which is still practiced in the United States.

I think the police officers in these cases are mostly just acting out what the legal system expects them to do.