To a city, a fleet of street sweepers is a sound investment. It is a guaranteed income stream, with bonus points if the sweeping times are staggered and confusing. It becomes a form of taxation.
We've also seen the city boot and tow cars for various arbitrary and absurd reasons. Not sure what the dividing line between public and private is in this case, and who gets exactly what, but those towing fines smart.
A more extreme phenomenon is with civil forfeiture laws, which has been going on for quite a while, the details of which are really pretty shocking, and alarming. With the federal, state, and local revenues drying up due to corporate greed and global economic deflation and resource stripping, there's a stronger impetus to make up the balance through other less legitimate methods.
All of that bureaucratic and institutional build-up that accompanied and facilitated economic expansion is costly to maintain, and of course, it isn't going away without a fight!
