The thing is, if it so simple for two tourists like my wife and I - my wife a former finance officer in university, and me, a former engineer in Defence - to spot active pickpockets, then plainly it should be even more simple for experienced undercover police to do so. The police and judiciary could fix the problem in no time, if they wanted to in the cities mentioned in the article. That they don't do so seems to me to be indicative of the fact that they don't want to.
There are several parts of the apparent "apathy" of police in those various jurisdictions to act. Some are somewhat understandable and others not. Let's dump them all out.
Maybe the police have bigger fish to fry. A problem like pickpocketing can be "self-regulated" by the individual, viz. by having people more vigilant, it "solves" the problem without actually needing police effort. Someone actually robbing you by force is different.
In order to charge someone for a crime, you need to see them do it, or have incontrovertible witnesses to that event. I think you are actually much sharper than the average person, let alone the average tourist, when it comes to spotting pickpockets. I don't rank police in those jurisdictions as necessarily as bright as you as picking out pickpockets, unless racial assumptions (e.g. spotting Roma) counts. Even more to that is picking out who are pickpockets without letting on that they are police. The pickpockets aren't dumb either - they know faces and unless the police force goes through a high turnover rate, you can dress a cop in Roma clothes and they'll still know they are a cop and thus won't let on.
The best pickpockets can steal from a mark without anyone else knowing. That includes police. The mark won't know they've been had until the thief is well and truly away from the scene. If they are caught by surveillance cameras, the relay between seeing the act and any police force nearby to catch the thief is often too late. You can't just pull up any person and say they are a thief and charge them with theft, even if they truly are a pickpocket, unless you have evidence that they have. Returning to the station and interrogating the **** out of them, even if they confess, is a lot to go through just to nail one pickpocket who has no chance of recompensing their victims. If they are a child or under the age of being able to be legally charged, they basically get let go, since you can't do anything against them - you almost have no right to detain them, and you can't physically discipline them.
You can't just pick them up saying they are thieves then deport them. If they have no ID, where do you send them? You can't just shoot them, tempting as it might be. You can't chop off their hands. If you put them all in jail then that'll be a pretty sight and a mess to manage (and you actually need to feed, clothe and make sure they are humanely comfortable in jail). If you catch one in the act, making you whole involves ensuring you have the item back; anything punitive against the thief for attempting to steal from you in the first place is normally not a topic of discussion, and if it is then we are back to what do we do about it.
There was a story of a man in Paris who was taking money out of an ATM when he was set upon by a group of Roma teenagers. Nothing subtle here, just swarm and start rummaging for stuff to steal. I think he froze but otherwise managed to scare them off before anything got stolen. The kids just resumed walking down the street as if nothing happened. There really is nothing you could have done. You might have been able to take a swipe or punch at one of them, and if you get pinged for it, you could claim self-defence.
Then of course, there's your approach - never go back.
Maybe police
aren't really doing their job (some would say, who could blame them, the pay is ****). After all, the combined forces of two countries cannot stop the flow of illegal immigrants at Calais; with all the technology, personnel and several options for improving the process. That doesn't compute...
