There's a quote in the article from an assistant DA claiming it is a 'moneyball' approach but seems more like a hash of somewhat data-oriented approaches. It's

There's a quote in the article from an assistant DA claiming it is a 'moneyball' approach but seems more like a hash of somewhat data-oriented approaches. It's been a long time since I've read the Moneyball book, and never saw the movie, but it seems to me there are two levels of 'moneyball' approach: 1. Use data to make allocate resources differently than gut instinct/received wisdom (of baseball scouts). This level can be applied very widely. Maybe they (Manhattan DA office) are doing this level to decide who to put resources into prosecuting. But clearly they're not doing it comprehensively, given massive prosecutions for marijuana. 2. Do (1) to make a bet in a competitive environment that goes a different way than most competitors. I don't see this level applying to what the DA is doing at all, though I imagine it could be done in the hiring of law enforcement/prosecution, which seems to be competitive, at least at the executive level. But there's probably a lack of data to make such bets. (I haven't looked, but an idle question I have is whether there's data to support shifting police work to a female-dominated profession; if there is maybe that's a bet that could be made.) I say this in part because I think there are non-sports fields in which both levels could be very directly translated, eg http://gondwanaland.com/mlog/2012/03/04/altmetrics-moneyball/ http://gondwanaland.com/mlog/2012/03/04/altmetrics-moneyball...