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RE: Is Common Sense Dead? - 5 Year Old Girl Fined £150 for Lemonade Stand
These days, standard procedures aren't implemented to increase quality, but to lower costs; they allow management to hire a cheaper ilk of people: the slightly stupid incompetents. All they have to do is follow procedure, no thinking or discretion required or even wanted.
The completion of procedures quickly becomes a goal, instead of means to an end; as long as procedures are followed, you can do nothing wrong, whatever the outcome. This is often combined with targets in the general form of completing a procedure as often as possible per day, even when it concerns fines for law violations.
It's happening everywhere these days, universal beyond what you describe.
They need to look at the situation rather than a rule book, a judge is meant to judge; not throw someone away or shut a child's business down . but sadly, every day legal systems are preying on us. It has turned into a profit scheme not a way of seeking justice.
Sadly I think you are correct. Sometimes people are even given targets - take parking fines for example.
The possibility of hiring cheaper people, who won't be allowed any discretion in their work, has been an explicit item in most pre-project briefings I got as an industrial engineer and ICT architect in the 20-odd years I worked for large multinational companies. It's no secret.
Interesting - was not aware that it was an actual goal.