4 ms·

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating clos

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

vkou 4y ago
The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.
- dheera 4y ago
  > The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car. But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that different from reporting your credit card as stolen.
  - vkou 4y ago
    > That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected.... It would be far cheaper... Designing and deploying an automatic system for 'Automatically deploying spike strips', (besides being a bad idea) in a city like NYC will be an eight-figure sort of project. That will assure that in the best-case scenario, a car theft will run four-figures worth of damages. In the worst case, it will do nothing, because the car's been abandoned, or is being taken apart in a Jersey chop-shop by the time you report it stolen.
    - dheera 4y ago
      > Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars.
      - vkou 4y ago
        > we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. If the police spends any time documenting it, looking for it, or catching and prosecuting the guy who did it, it can run up to that. Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... > I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars. Do you want to pay hundreds of dollars in personal loss, or tens of dollars in taxes that fund measures and mechanisms to prevent or mitigate that loss? It all comes out of your pocket at the end of the day. Whether it comes out of your taxes, or your insurance premiums, or from your pocketbook, you'll still be paying. I know that all costs being equal, I'd rather live in a world with fewer car, or cat, or copper thefts, or any other negative-sum activity than one with more of them. There's no magic bullet for this, though, which is why each mitigation should be considered on its own costs and merits.
        Dylan16807 4y ago
        > Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... The bare minimum is taking a report and checking a file, and that'll take about five minutes. How are you calculating "a lot more than $50"? And why did you pick $50 anyway? Is that a comparison to how much the criminal makes? If the profit is a small fraction of the damage they do, it makes lots of sense for the police to spend more than the profit.
        dheera 4y ago
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    For the cost of the city, if they stopped going after car theft it would simply become more prevalent. We don't need to decriminalize and make safe cities for car thieves. Regarding your second point, many modern cars have kill switches the police can access. This might be a better solution if these can't easily bypass them. That said, I don't personally want a car with a kill switch.
    - dheera 4y ago
      I don't advocate for decriminalizing it at all. But it shouldn't take 5 figures to catch a car thief with some minimal technology. It the very least it should be a fundamental axiom of a society that {catching a thief of an item, fixing an item} should cost less than or equal to replacing the item, and I believe that to be largely true if technology is maximally utilized.
      - s1artibartfast 4y ago
        I don't think that's a reasonable Axiom because thieves rarely steal a single item over a lifetime. There's also the deterrent effect which is very important. If you didn't catch at least some car thieves, you couldn't have a society with cars.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag Which is affected by the mayor, a former cop, name dropping AirTags in relation to car thefts in the press.
bell-cot 4y ago
By the standards of either the NYC budget, or Apple's finances, $12,500 is a rounding error.
- hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
  They can send all their rounding errors to me then, I'll happily take them.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    Okay. Note that half of them will be negative. Have fun.
    - RoyGBivCap 4y ago
      I always mess up some mundane detail...

On apple's website, that's about $25 per an airtag and unless they got a deal, this is $12,500 in funds or free assets from Apple to do promotion. Skating close to corruption.

vkou 4y ago

The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. You call it corruption. Is it, or is it just a good ROI? I think it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag. Time will tell.

dheera 4y ago
> The cost to the city & its residents of dealing with a single car theft can easily be four-to-five figures. That's ridiculous. At that rate it would be better to just buy the owner a new car. But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate or VIN as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected. It would be far cheaper and not that different from reporting your credit card as stolen.
- vkou 4y ago
  > That's ridiculous. No, it's just how the world works. The unfortunate thing about property crime is that frequently, $50 worth of gain often results in $500-$5,000 worth of damages and costs. Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen, or their copper ripped out. > But seriously, there should be mechanisms to report your license plate as stolen and have traffic cameras automatically deploy spike strips when that license plate is detected.... It would be far cheaper... Designing and deploying an automatic system for 'Automatically deploying spike strips', (besides being a bad idea) in a city like NYC will be an eight-figure sort of project. That will assure that in the best-case scenario, a car theft will run four-figures worth of damages. In the worst case, it will do nothing, because the car's been abandoned, or is being taken apart in a Jersey chop-shop by the time you report it stolen.
  - dheera 4y ago
    > Just ask anyone who's had a catalytic converter stolen The difference is when someone's catalytic converter is stolen, we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. More often than not, we spend $0 of taxpayer money, and the angry owner spends $5000. I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars.
    - vkou 4y ago
      > we don't spend $5000 of taxpayer money on it. If the police spends any time documenting it, looking for it, or catching and prosecuting the guy who did it, it can run up to that. Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... > I read the parent comment as meaning we're spending 4-5 figures of taxpayer money every time a car is stolen, in which case I'd rather we just buy 2-3 more cars with that money and distribute them for free to people who had stolen cars. Do you want to pay hundreds of dollars in personal loss, or tens of dollars in taxes that fund measures and mechanisms to prevent or mitigate that loss? It all comes out of your pocket at the end of the day. Whether it comes out of your taxes, or your insurance premiums, or from your pocketbook, you'll still be paying. I know that all costs being equal, I'd rather live in a world with fewer car, or cat, or copper thefts, or any other negative-sum activity than one with more of them. There's no magic bullet for this, though, which is why each mitigation should be considered on its own costs and merits.
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        > Even if they do the bare minimum, it'll definitely run a lot more than $50... The bare minimum is taking a report and checking a file, and that'll take about five minutes. How are you calculating "a lot more than $50"? And why did you pick $50 anyway? Is that a comparison to how much the criminal makes? If the profit is a small fraction of the damage they do, it makes lots of sense for the police to spend more than the profit.
      - dheera 4y ago
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  For the cost of the city, if they stopped going after car theft it would simply become more prevalent. We don't need to decriminalize and make safe cities for car thieves. Regarding your second point, many modern cars have kill switches the police can access. This might be a better solution if these can't easily bypass them. That said, I don't personally want a car with a kill switch.
  - dheera 4y ago
    I don't advocate for decriminalizing it at all. But it shouldn't take 5 figures to catch a car thief with some minimal technology. It the very least it should be a fundamental axiom of a society that {catching a thief of an item, fixing an item} should cost less than or equal to replacing the item, and I believe that to be largely true if technology is maximally utilized.
    - s1artibartfast 4y ago
      I don't think that's a reasonable Axiom because thieves rarely steal a single item over a lifetime. There's also the deterrent effect which is very important. If you didn't catch at least some car thieves, you couldn't have a society with cars.
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> it'll depend on whether this does anything, or whether NYPD will tell you to go pound sand when you report your car's location to them with an AirTag Which is affected by the mayor, a former cop, name dropping AirTags in relation to car thefts in the press.

bell-cot 4y ago

By the standards of either the NYC budget, or Apple's finances, $12,500 is a rounding error.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
They can send all their rounding errors to me then, I'll happily take them.
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  Okay. Note that half of them will be negative. Have fun.
  - RoyGBivCap 4y ago
    I always mess up some mundane detail...