HN Explorer

7 comments

[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 30.8 ms ] thread
sjg007
There’s a very unpopular reason for this which is that policing broken windows incites major crime.
vinchuco
Possibly infinitely many, but that doesn't say much :P
ImSkeptical
>During the slowdown, police continued to respond to calls, and the arrest rate for major crimes (murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand theft auto) remained constant. But the arrest rate for non-major crime and narcotic offenses dropped, as did the number of stop-and-frisk events. It took until mid-January for things to begin to return to normal.

Wait, the police stopped arresting people, and fewer people got arrested? Am I missing something here?

This reminds me of when we turned off our logs, and recorded far fewer errors than usual.

eridius
Yes, you're missing something. According to the article, the police still handled major crimes, and the reported drop was specifically in major crimes, not crimes overall.
BLKNSLVR
> they found something surprising: reports of major crime dropped during the slowdown period.

Reporting of major crime dropped, whilst the arrest rate for major crime remained constant.

It's more like you turn off your logging for minor issues and find that you're also logging fewer major issues.

To me, it sounds as if the publicised slowdown resulted in fewer people reporting things that didn't happen. Attention seekers.

DrScump
The arrest rate for "minor crimes" (and narcotics) went down. That is not the same as proving that crime dropped.

For example, the arrest rate for car burglary in San Francisco is very low, yet streets everywhere are littered with auto glass chunks.

[dead] fasdfdsafas
My car uses less gas when it's out of gas.