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I'd draw people's attention, in particular, to this principle: > Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of
by Pitarou 13y ago
I'd draw people's attention, in particular, to this principle:
> Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime.
This is in contrast to the US, where a cop's career prospects largely depend on his arrest record. To see where this has led, read Arrest-Proof Yourself by Dale C. Carson.
(By the way, I don't actually live in the US, so if you want to tell me I'm an idiot and I don't know what I'm talking about I'll have no comeback.)
- anvandare 13y agoSee also Campbell's law, and Goodhart's law. It's only human. If your employment evaluation depends on a specific statistic (the number of arrests you made, lines of code written, number of pupils passing the test, etc.) then you'll try to keep that statistic on a favourable level; even if doing so fails the original intent behind it all.
- notdrunkatall 13y agoIncentives incentivize things; who knew?
- watmough 13y agoThank-you, I've spent a pleasant morning researching and actually reading Carson's entire book in PDF. Pretty much confirms what is pretty obvious. You don't want to be stopped, and if you get stopped, don't piss off guys that have lots more power than you do.