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The way a car burglary is handled depends in a large part on the local situation and laws. When I started in San Antonio in the 80's, a car burglary was handled by the patrol officer but a detective (crime scene type) could be requested if the officer thought it would do any good. The problem with checking a car for prints was that car burglars might leave prints on the outside of the car, but most of the inside is not very good for prints. Think about it, they even market household appliances as fingerprint resistant and the car dashboard is made pretty much the same way - rough finish. Lots of cloth ont he inside of most cars also, so again, no prints possible. And an honest cop would always explain to the victim that the powder could easily ruin the inside of the car since it was designed to stick to surfaces. High damage potential plus low chance of doing any good equals no real reason for printing things.

But you might not have noticed the other part I mentioned. The elements of car burglary require proving the criminal went inside the car. But he mostly leaves the prints on the outside. The Bexar DA would not accept the outside prints for evidence, even if it was from someone from across town inside a gated community. You would have to prove the prints were made at that scene, not somewhere else also.

Then when I worked in Luling, a slightly more rural community, the Caldwell DA would take the prints as clear cut evidence and the jury would usually convict if it got that far. All the police would have to do would be document asking the suspect if he had ever been near the car for some other reason.

But, Luling also had a lot fewer car burglaries (unlike the Suburban in Houston that was mentioned). So the police, DA, and the community saw it as a more serious offense. That is another part of the local situation you need to take into account. And the final part, especially when comparing other states to us, is what the penalty for the crime was. Way back, car burglary was a third degree felony in Texas. Then it became a class A misdemeanor and now it is a state jail felony. Police responses have certainly changed based on whether they were handling a real felony, a misdemeanor, or that weird cross between the two called a state jail felony.