It’s called entrapment and, to the best of my knowledge, it is illegal to do this.

Except it’s not, because to prove entrapment you need to prove that a) police instigated the crime, b) which you would not otherwise have committed.

Leaving bait lying around is passive enough that it probably doesn’t qualify for point A, and makes it nearly impossible to prove point B.

Nasty, sleazy, underhanded, actively detrimental to the communities they’re supposed to be “serving,” but legal.

imagine using tax money to buy food, and instead of just giving the food to hungry people, you fucking use that food to bait hungry people into a crime of desperation.