tbh what could they do about it ? They can't really go full NCIS over a stolen backpack. There are thousands of "minor" thefts, and other small crimes/offences, every day in big cities, they'd need thousands of people to review videos, look for potential witnesses, follow the trail, &c.
By prosecuting one person, you could prevent thousands of future stolen bags.
So the broken windows theory would say that seeing graffiti and panhandling would signal to other people that the area had a more general sense of lawlessness, that criminality was more normalized, and that if they commits crimes they would likely not be punished. However, the broken windows theory has been pretty soundly debunked and leads to tons of discriminatory targeting. [1][2]
[1] https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-break-the-broken...
[2] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-problem-with-...
It's a regular project management problem, there are N police officers and NxM crimes to solve (0<M<∞) at a different cost now prioritize their work.
Invest more in petty crime might have more gain in the future but might lead to more serious crimes in the short term (or not)