Crime observed (and tracked)

I recall a well-known crime expert telling me once there's a simple way to cut crime rates: decrease the number of cops. Conversely, you can increase crime rates by increasing police presence, or improving the tools at their disposal. There's not actually more crime ... just that more of it is detected, and recorded.

I thought of that while reading this in the Christian Science Monitor, about the expanding British taste for surveillance:

First there was closed-circuit TV. Then speed cameras. Then DNA profiling, plans for ID cards, and cellphone data storage.

In March, Britain will enhance its reputation as the surveillance capital of the West with a global first: recording the movements of all cars on the road and storing the data for at least two years.

It's a network of thousands of cameras harnessed to software that can read car license plates, check them against a central database, and alert police to suspected criminals or terrorists.Police chiefs are thrilled at the technology, arguing it will provide an unrivaled crime-fighting tool that will also aid antiterror efforts.

In regional trial runs, the number of arrests per officer shot up from around 10 per year to 100 per year. Convictions also increased.

Comments

[luke quinton]

Hmmm, I wonder if the new increase in local RNC hirings will elicit the same response and follow the formula?