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> While it'd be nice if police could investigate every type of crime That’s literally their job, which they get paid for. But anyway, my comment was more refer

> While it'd be nice if police could investigate every type of crime That’s literally their job, which they get paid for. But anyway, my comment was more referring to the fact that if they had done their job, I’d be more open to keeping my Sentry mode on.

dragonwriter 2y ago
> > While it'd be nice if police could investigate every type of crime > That’s literally their job, which they get paid for. It's literally not. Their job is to do a variety of things, including investigation, according to the priorities of the higher, within the financial constraints they are given and according to the priorities of the authority placed over them (which in many cases is the top leadership of the police department themselves, because lots of times they are given a broad degree of structural independence from the local government they are associated with.) What you say may be what you'd like their job to be, but it is not literally what their job is.
- nox101 2y ago
  I agree with you that the police have limited resources. At the same time, the better they do their job the less of it there will be to do as word spreads that you won't get away with it. It could be arguably be much more efficient to take in user video, voluntarily offered, and prosecute all easily provable crimes and violations.
  - dragonwriter 2y ago
    > At the same time, the better they do their job the less of it there will be to do Institutionally, the police have very little interest in there being less perception of a need for police, that would result in them getting less resource, less deference, and more oversight and accountability.
    - nox101 2y ago
      that doesn't seem to have worked out for them.
- pjc50 2y ago
  What this conversation is getting at is the police being (percieved to be) selective about what they do and don't care about is gradually corrosive to co-operation.
- Terr_ 2y ago
  This is a lengthy quote, but it's relevant and from one of my favorite authors: > Ah... Keep the peace. That was the thing. People often failed to understand what that meant. You'd go to some life-threatening disturbance like a couple of neighbours scrapping in the street over who owned the hedge between their properties, and they'd both be bursting with aggrieved self-righteousness, both yelling, their wives would either be having a private scrap on the side or would have adjourned to a kitchen for a shared pot of tea and a chat, and they all expected you to sort it out. And they could never understand that it wasn't your job. > Sorting it out was a job for a good surveyor and a couple of lawyers, maybe. Your job was to quell the impulse to bang their stupid fat heads together, to ignore the affronted speeches of dodgy self-justification, to get them to stop shouting and to get them off the street. Once that had been achieved, your job was over. You weren't some walking god, dispensing finely tuned natural justice. Your job was simply to bring back peace. > Of course, if your few strict words didn't work and Mr Smith subsequently clambered over the disputed hedge and stabbed Mr Jones to death with a pair of gardening shears, then you had a different job, sorting out the notorious Hedge Argument Murder. But at least it was one you were trained to do. People expected all kinds of things from coppers, but there was one thing that sooner or later they all wanted: make this not be happening. -- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

dragonwriter 2y ago

> > While it'd be nice if police could investigate every type of crime > That’s literally their job, which they get paid for. It's literally not. Their job is to do a variety of things, including investigation, according to the priorities of the higher, within the financial constraints they are given and according to the priorities of the authority placed over them (which in many cases is the top leadership of the police department themselves, because lots of times they are given a broad degree of structural independence from the local government they are associated with.) What you say may be what you'd like their job to be, but it is not literally what their job is.

nox101 2y ago
I agree with you that the police have limited resources. At the same time, the better they do their job the less of it there will be to do as word spreads that you won't get away with it. It could be arguably be much more efficient to take in user video, voluntarily offered, and prosecute all easily provable crimes and violations.
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  > At the same time, the better they do their job the less of it there will be to do Institutionally, the police have very little interest in there being less perception of a need for police, that would result in them getting less resource, less deference, and more oversight and accountability.
  - nox101 2y ago
    that doesn't seem to have worked out for them.
pjc50 2y ago
What this conversation is getting at is the police being (percieved to be) selective about what they do and don't care about is gradually corrosive to co-operation.
Terr_ 2y ago
This is a lengthy quote, but it's relevant and from one of my favorite authors: > Ah... Keep the peace. That was the thing. People often failed to understand what that meant. You'd go to some life-threatening disturbance like a couple of neighbours scrapping in the street over who owned the hedge between their properties, and they'd both be bursting with aggrieved self-righteousness, both yelling, their wives would either be having a private scrap on the side or would have adjourned to a kitchen for a shared pot of tea and a chat, and they all expected you to sort it out. And they could never understand that it wasn't your job. > Sorting it out was a job for a good surveyor and a couple of lawyers, maybe. Your job was to quell the impulse to bang their stupid fat heads together, to ignore the affronted speeches of dodgy self-justification, to get them to stop shouting and to get them off the street. Once that had been achieved, your job was over. You weren't some walking god, dispensing finely tuned natural justice. Your job was simply to bring back peace. > Of course, if your few strict words didn't work and Mr Smith subsequently clambered over the disputed hedge and stabbed Mr Jones to death with a pair of gardening shears, then you had a different job, sorting out the notorious Hedge Argument Murder. But at least it was one you were trained to do. People expected all kinds of things from coppers, but there was one thing that sooner or later they all wanted: make this not be happening. -- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett