I am okay with that. A city government has the job of maintaining public infrastructure. Abandoned property littering the sidewalks can be a nuisance. And you make it seems like the cops/city just run around stealing bikes and pocketing the money for hookers and coke. If they indeed auction the bicycles, then that goes into their budget or the budget of some other department -- which means more money for public works / government. And it should be noted, they typically hold such property for claim until a decent amount of time has passed.

A republic designates certain duties to their elected representatives and their offices. We have granted the police/city to handle such issues.