I respect the job police have to do. I'm all in favor of police doing what they need to do to go home at the end of their shift and if the choice is some hump or a cop, I'm picking the cop.
But their job is to keep 5 year olds alive. Kid is in the car and it looks like the bad guy is going to flee? Let him go rather than peppering the car full of rounds and then saying "oh well." Same thing about chasing car thieves at 100mph through neighborhoods.
At some point the reward of getting just one more minor bad guy off the street right that minute just isn't worth the cost. Put out an APB, get a warrant, and arrest the guy later.