5 ms·

This isn't so much a story about the limits of law enforcement as it is about the reality that they don't expend much time investigating "small" crimes and thei

This isn't so much a story about the limits of law enforcement as it is about the reality that they don't expend much time investigating "small" crimes and their definition of small is surprisingly large to the average person.

londons_explore 5y ago
I'm a bit surprised by this... There are only a finite number of people who commit crimes like this, and if you can find them at any point after they have committed one or more crimes, you ought to be able to arrest them. It therefore doesn't really matter the size of the crime - it still enables an arrest of someone who might be involved in large numbers of crimes both big and small, but that you couldn't arrest before for lack of evidence they are involved in crime. In many cases smaller crimes will be less well concealed too (hiding stuff costs money, paying more middlemen costs money, not worth it for smaller crimes)
Clubber 5y ago
Yet they will arrest and prosecute to the full extent of the law someone who steals a $15 T-Shirt from JC Penny without blinking.
- alephnan 5y ago
  That amount of theft is not illegal in California
  - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
    Are you mistaking the difference between legal and won’t be prosecuted? It’s the latter. And not for nothing, but I don’t think that policy is working out so well for some businesses specifically in the Bay Area. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/organized-crime-drives-sf-shoplifting-closing-17-walgreens-in-5-years/ar-BB1gI85R https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/organized-crime-drives-...
- bilbo0s 5y ago
  To be fair, that's because JC Penny does 95% of the work of apprehending and gathering evidence against the suspect. If they came to a small business that had a shirt shoplifted but did not apprehended the thief, and had no security cameras, they'd take the report and leave. Vast majority of police departments won't have time for that.
  - Clubber 5y ago
    >Vast majority of police departments won't have time for that. How much of that is because they won't allocate time for that but rather allocate time for a more profitable operation, like writing traffic citations? Has there ever been a public accounting on what police departments spend their time on? My medium sized city spends about $500 million a year on police. That seems like a lot. It's the largest single expenditure.
pinkybanana 5y ago
> they don't expend much time investigating "small" crimes and their definition of small is surprisingly large to the average person. On the other crime types, for example drug related, law enforcement seems to pay a lot attention to the small-time criminals.
- decremental 5y ago
  Drug-related offenses are often that of possession. It's not hard to investigate possession and it's not like the cops are going to ignore the gram of coke they just found in your pocket.
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    > it's not like the cops are going to ignore the gram of coke they just found in your pocket. Why not? Seems like a waste of time and $. If they get the $50k or $650k back, they at least have a chance at civil forfeiture.
    - wil421 5y ago
      How are the cops going to catch someone in Russia, China, Iran, NK, or any of the other countries who turn a blind eye to cyber crime schemes? I doubt they will even be able to find a single person to arrest much less a real identity. Drugs are right there in front of the cops most of the time.
  - michaelmrose 5y ago
    A lot of legwork and resources are expended to shake down enough members of society to come across that gram of coke, prosecute, and incarcerate. The cost of prosecution could trivially run into thousands of dollars including public defenders the cost of incarceration 36k per year. A 5 year stint could run the people almost 200k to punish someone for hurting themselves by hurting them worse.
throwaway248334 5y ago
It's not that it's small. It's that the suspect is likely not in the jurisdiction and the money is likely out of the country.

londons_explore 5y ago

I'm a bit surprised by this... There are only a finite number of people who commit crimes like this, and if you can find them at any point after they have committed one or more crimes, you ought to be able to arrest them. It therefore doesn't really matter the size of the crime - it still enables an arrest of someone who might be involved in large numbers of crimes both big and small, but that you couldn't arrest before for lack of evidence they are involved in crime. In many cases smaller crimes will be less well concealed too (hiding stuff costs money, paying more middlemen costs money, not worth it for smaller crimes)

Clubber 5y ago

Yet they will arrest and prosecute to the full extent of the law someone who steals a $15 T-Shirt from JC Penny without blinking.

alephnan 5y ago
That amount of theft is not illegal in California
- SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
  Are you mistaking the difference between legal and won’t be prosecuted? It’s the latter. And not for nothing, but I don’t think that policy is working out so well for some businesses specifically in the Bay Area. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/organized-crime-drives-sf-shoplifting-closing-17-walgreens-in-5-years/ar-BB1gI85R https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/organized-crime-drives-...
bilbo0s 5y ago
To be fair, that's because JC Penny does 95% of the work of apprehending and gathering evidence against the suspect. If they came to a small business that had a shirt shoplifted but did not apprehended the thief, and had no security cameras, they'd take the report and leave. Vast majority of police departments won't have time for that.
- Clubber 5y ago
  >Vast majority of police departments won't have time for that. How much of that is because they won't allocate time for that but rather allocate time for a more profitable operation, like writing traffic citations? Has there ever been a public accounting on what police departments spend their time on? My medium sized city spends about $500 million a year on police. That seems like a lot. It's the largest single expenditure.

pinkybanana 5y ago

> they don't expend much time investigating "small" crimes and their definition of small is surprisingly large to the average person. On the other crime types, for example drug related, law enforcement seems to pay a lot attention to the small-time criminals.

decremental 5y ago
Drug-related offenses are often that of possession. It's not hard to investigate possession and it's not like the cops are going to ignore the gram of coke they just found in your pocket.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  > it's not like the cops are going to ignore the gram of coke they just found in your pocket. Why not? Seems like a waste of time and $. If they get the $50k or $650k back, they at least have a chance at civil forfeiture.
  - wil421 5y ago
    How are the cops going to catch someone in Russia, China, Iran, NK, or any of the other countries who turn a blind eye to cyber crime schemes? I doubt they will even be able to find a single person to arrest much less a real identity. Drugs are right there in front of the cops most of the time.
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  A lot of legwork and resources are expended to shake down enough members of society to come across that gram of coke, prosecute, and incarcerate. The cost of prosecution could trivially run into thousands of dollars including public defenders the cost of incarceration 36k per year. A 5 year stint could run the people almost 200k to punish someone for hurting themselves by hurting them worse.

throwaway248334 5y ago

It's not that it's small. It's that the suspect is likely not in the jurisdiction and the money is likely out of the country.