I’m assuming there is no clear indication of intent. Part of crime prevention is that if you don’t know a variable, you must account for the worst possible outcome, and then work all your solutions down from there. At worst you have solution A. Next best is solution B and so on. The immediate response of police is based on those factors, in this case they don’t know why the car was stolen, and the likelihood of the person getting away used to be really high because we didn’t live in a surveillance state, so chasing a perpetrator was just what you did.
My closing paragraph was about the worst possible outcome. What if the absolute worst happen, would there be outrage at police because they didn’t pursue earlier? Does it put police in a catch 22? If that part isn’t figured out, then it will die in committee because no legislative body will (generally) allow their executive arm to be liable on both sides of their actions.