It's also a part of "no broken windows" theatre. The story says that if there's an abandoned house in the neighborhood and hooligans break one window, it must be covered up as fast as possible, otherwise, they are going to smash all the windows because they do not fear being seen anymore.

All of those traffic tickets, small fines for petty crime, etc. are designed to reinforce the idea of "we're watching you, obey the law" because if you can get away with small crimes, you will be more likely to commit more serious ones.

Personally, I don't like it, but a lot of petty government functionaries subscribe to this philosophy and that's why we can't have nice things.