That's just pure f****d up they need shooting even if there is CCTV there's not a fad lot that's gonna come of it all that will happen is he will get a crime number and that's it i had my car damaged and caught the perpetrator outside a police station and the cops let him go 
Vehicle crime is a crime that unfortunately generally cannot be detected. Pure and simply. Of course the example given, don't know what happened with the police, but unless the offender is on scene and your on the phone to the police, all your going to get is a crime ref number. Certainly in Herts, you get the scenes of crime people out to look for prints/blood etc, but, again, as criminals are generally forensically aware, nothing will be picked up. It is a right pain but what else can be done?
Alot of station CCTV (in fact, a lot of CCTV in general) is of poor quality and simply reading a vehicles numberplate is a struggle. ANPR is used for commonly now in car parks but is mostly managed by private firms. Access to this data for police etc is sometimes non-existent (especially with one major car park operator!).
Smart water is an excellent deterrent and does work. It's worked wonders on the railways and also increased the amount of stolen property returned to owners. MOst of my electrical stuff has it and my sub in my golf for some reason! Definately good stuff.
I have a few packs if people want one (I think 2, maybe more, need to find them first!)
The people that steal wheels/badges are scum, nothing more nothing less, who shouldn't inhabit our world. However, the reality is, vehicle crime is VERY hard to detect.
