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Chicago's Experiment In Predictive Policing Isn't Working (theverge.com)

The U.S. will phase out private prisons, a move made possible by fewer and shorter sentences for drug offenses, reports the BBC. But when it comes to reducing arrests for violent crimes, police officers in Chicago found themselves resorting ineffectively to a $2 million algorithm which ultimately had them visiting people before any crime had been committed. schwit1 quotes Ars Technica: Struggling to reduce its high murder rate, the city of Chicago has become an incubator for experimental policing techniques. Community policing, stop and frisk, "interruption" tactics --- the city has tried many strategies. Perhaps most controversial and promising has been the city's futuristic "heat list" -- an algorithm-generated list identifying people most likely to be involved in a shooting.

The hope was that the list would allow police to provide social services to people in danger, while also preventing likely shooters from picking up a gun. But a new report from the RAND Corporation shows nothing of the sort has happened. Instead, it indicates that the list is, at best, not even as effective as a most wanted list. At worst, it unnecessarily targets people for police attention, creating a new form of profiling.

The police argue they've updated the algorithm and improved their techniques for using it. But the article notes that the researchers began following the "heat list" when it launched in 2013, and "found that the program has saved no lives at all."

191 comments

  1. Bring in Spielberg and Cruise! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sounds like something out of Minority Report. That incidentally backfired too.

    1. Re:Bring in Spielberg and Cruise! by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Oh poor A/C, law-enforcement is so so busy busy keeping KAOS at bay. Their words, not mine.

    2. Re:Bring in Spielberg and Cruise! by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 1

      Thought crime didn't have lax punitive measures.

      The problem in Chiraq (and I am in one of the suburbs) is that gun crime isn't treated as harshly as it should be. Some felon caught with a gun, or someone using a gun in a crime should serve the full time. But that doesn't happen. It's only going to get worse with a president closing prisons.

      Full use of gun control laws in effect should be a priority. But they aren't. Instead they want to make new laws making scary looking rifles illegal.

      Which of course, will not be enforced on people who commit crimes.

      --
      _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    3. Re: Bring in Spielberg and Cruise! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Minority reports system actually worked amazingly well.

      The problem was all crimes became Crimes of passion perpetrated with no chance to predict.

      Can you imagine a world in which NO organised or planned crime EVER occurred?

      If they just ignored the crimes of passion and just used the minority report system as a way of being alerted to crimes in the planning phase (and did traditional police work after informed by the psychic work) then the world would be amazingly peaceful.

      Even the murders which were crimea of passion would be easier to solve as you have more information about the event.

    4. Re: Bring in Spielberg and Cruise! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure that's only a partial description of symptoms and consequences, not a solution. Consult the study conducted in the South Shore and Englewood neighborhoods, where at-risk youths were provided with quality employment opportunities. Participants were dramatically less likely to engage in violent crime than non-participants, and it's way less costly for society to provide jobs and reap the benefits of the labor than to spend $35k/yr or more to incarcerate someone in the Dept or Corrections.

  2. Welcome to Thoughtcrime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We've finally arrived. Did you bring your coat?

  3. Responsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe the enterprise of saving lives shouldn't be put entirely on the police? Obviously they have a role to play, but when we are talking about prevention, other institutions also have a huge role to play.

    For example, many killings are the result of mental health problems that are going untreated. Part of the problem there is that the necessary care can be expensive. So....let's do something about that. What does the government-funded health care landscape look like these days? And what about educational grants (NOT LOANS) for mental health practitioners?

    There is also still a strong social stigma against seeking mental health. Nobody is embarrassed to say something like "My arm was broke so I went to see the doctor," but the moment someone utters the phrase "mental health" everyone thinks of him as crazy, weak, and pathetic. This is ridiculous, and we need to put more social engineering to the task of fixing that (for example, a lot more television and movies can include scenes and dialogue implicating that the popular characters are seeing mental health professionals...and the attitude is that this is just a given that normal people do this sort of thing on a routine basis).

    There are, of course, also economic motivators for murder. If poor people are being driven to these extremes by poverty, then why isn't one of the richest countries in the world doing something to address that? Why do we continue to abide the existence of charities that spend nearly all the donated money on their own staff and get no effective results? Why aren't we making more use of proven-effective programs like microlending?

    There is quite a lot that can be done, and the police can't be left alone to do it all.

    1. Re:Responsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why aren't we making more use of proven-effective programs like microlending?

      I tried spending a microscopic $10 bill at McDonalds once, and they told me to leave the establishment.

    2. Re:Responsibility. by tbuskey · · Score: 1

      Maybe the enterprise of saving lives shouldn't be put entirely on the police? Obviously they have a role to play, but when we are talking about prevention, other institutions also have a huge role to play.

      For example, many killings are the result of mental health problems that are going untreated. Part of the problem there is that the necessary care can be expensive. So....let's do something about that. What does the government-funded health care landscape look like these days? And what about educational grants (NOT LOANS) for mental health practitioners?

      There is also still a strong social stigma against seeking mental health. Nobody is embarrassed to say something like "My arm was broke so I went to see the doctor," but the moment someone utters the phrase "mental health" everyone thinks of him as crazy, weak, and pathetic. This is ridiculous, and we need to put more social engineering to the task of fixing that (for example, a lot more television and movies can include scenes and dialogue implicating that the popular characters are seeing mental health professionals...and the attitude is that this is just a given that normal people do this sort of thing on a routine basis).

      ...

      There is quite a lot that can be done, and the police can't be left alone to do it all.

      Keep Sound Minds is trying to reduce the stigma of mental health issues and work toward policies that help people get help before damage is done.

    3. Re:Responsibility. by blindseer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is also still a strong social stigma against seeking mental health. Nobody is embarrassed to say something like "My arm was broke so I went to see the doctor," but the moment someone utters the phrase "mental health" everyone thinks of him as crazy, weak, and pathetic.

      There is a big difference between going to a surgeon to fix a broken arm and going to a psychiatrist for a mental illness. A broken arm does not lead to the police coming to your house to take your guns. Depending on the conditions of the mental illness in Illinois the government will revoke your FOID for one year, five years, or the rest of your life for seeking treatment for a mental illness. Getting a FOID is difficult and expensive. Getting a firearm to protect yourself, your home, and your family is also difficult and expensive. Being disarmed in your own home is not pleasant if one lacks the means to move to a better neighborhood or one is bound by some (real or imagined) obligation to stay put.

      You want to see crime go down and people get treatment for mental illness? Then get rid of the laws that disarm people and leave them vulnerable to the thugs that the police cannot do anything about. The police can only come when called, they cannot be there every time there is a crime, as much as they might want to be there. When a crime is committed there are certain to be two people present, the perpetrator and the victim. Let's allow the victims to be armed so that they can defend themselves.

      Illinois was the last state in the federation to lift the ban on concealed carry of weapons. Even though they are technically available the process to get the license is lengthy and expensive, something not everyone that need them can afford. The license alone costs $150. Then there is the required training, photograph, fingerprints, and probably more that have to be paid for. The time to do all of this is likely out of the question for the average blue collar worker.

      This brings up the question on why Illinois even needs a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Would you believe me if I said six states do not require permits to carry a concealed weapon? Well, you shouldn't because the real number is more like eleven, depending on how one defines permitless carry. Carrying a weapon in the open, not concealed, does not require a permit in 25 or 30 states.

      Where is all of this crime happening? There seems to be a strong correlation between restrictions on the carry of self defense tools and violent crimes. There is also a strong correlation between Democrat governance and crime. Think about that the next time you vote.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    4. Re:Responsibility. by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

      If poor people are being driven to these extremes by poverty, then why isn't one of the richest countries in the world doing something to address that?

      This is an insult to poor people. Like, "Oh, they are poor, they can't help themselves from murdering." Being a former poor person myself, I spit in your face. When was the last time you actually helped a poor person instead of saying, "Oh, someone should help them."

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Responsibility. by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

      > There is also still a strong social stigma against seeking mental health. Nobody is
      > embarrassed to say something like "My arm was broke so I went to see the doctor,"
      > but the moment someone utters the phrase "mental health" everyone thinks of
      > him as crazy, weak, and pathetic.

      Problem... if you go see a psychiatrist once, you become virtually unemployable in many sought-after jobs. This has to change before people will consider seeing a psychiatrist.

      Unfortunately, "big data" has ways of finding out if you've ever visited a psychiatrist. And even if they don't, it can always make the patient a target for blackmail years later.

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
    6. Re:Responsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's also a strong correlation between the usage of Internet Explorer, and the murder rate. Think about that next time you vote! Idiot.

    7. Re:Responsibility. by Cederic · · Score: 1

      There seems to be a strong correlation between restrictions on the carry of self defense tools and violent crimes

      Unlike, for instance, the relationship between mental health issues and use of guns against human targets?

      Oh, wait. Does that completely wreck your entire argument?

    8. Re:Responsibility. by Insightfill · · Score: 2

      There is also a strong correlation between Democrat governance and crime. Think about that the next time you vote.

      You had me up to there. It's actually more that 1) There's a strong correlation between population density and Democratic governance (and its emphasis on shared services), and 2) There's a strong correlation between population density and crime. Might as well say something like "ice cream causes violent crime" or something. Yes, you said "correlation", but "causation" was strongly hinted.

    9. Re: Responsibility. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm... false. Entirely. I see a psychiatrist once a month for Adderall to treat my ADHD-PI. Not only has that not hindered my professional career, without treatment my ADHD would have destroyed it. Nobody has ever asked if I see a psych, and even so I share the information freely if it ever comes up. Not only am I not ashamed, nobody cares.

      Not everyone who sees a psychiatrist has a psychosis, and not every disorder (ADHD, Dysthymia, Anxiety, etc...) makes you even remotely dangerous to others or yourself. If left untreated, though, that may be a different story for some.

      I don't know what makes you think that employers don't want you to maintain your mental health, but that is absolutely absurd.

  4. Let's summarize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The failed experiment, called Chicago, just doesn't work. We have all known that for decades

    1. Re: Let's summarize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chicago has been broken since al Capone ran the streets.

    2. Re:Let's summarize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, gun control doesn't seem to be working there either....

    3. Re:Let's summarize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Failed? It did produce the deviant. Wasn't that the objective?

    4. Re:Let's summarize by dywolf · · Score: 1

      works fine in NYC and other large cities.
      works fine in most of the rest of the world.
      why is that?
      could it be because those places have largely uniform laws across large areas, whereas Chicago is surrounded by locales without strict gun control?

      nah. couldn't be.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  5. Cops looking for an easy way to police by ITRambo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Having more real cops on the streets would be best. I know that the ghetto is the last place Chicago cops want to be. But, that's where most of their murders take place. To curtail murders requires more than a computer program that does nothing actually predictive, only data mining.

    1. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by DarkVader · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No, this country is severely overcopped. What we need is fewer police.

      I think a 90% reduction would be a good start.

    2. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Maybe they should give guns to, and deputize everyone in these ghettos that you're speaking of. That way they could all just shoot and/or arrest each other. Last men standing get fired from the force. Maybe that'll reboot the ghettos.

      No. Even I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    3. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by BringsApples · · Score: 1

      Maybe just get rid of all cops, and increase the number of lawyers.

      Hell, while we're at it, we can change the qualification to become a lawyer too: Memorize the dictionary. All you need to know are more words than others, and BAM, you're a lawyer.

      In order to become a judge, you must own at least 2 hunting camps.

      --
      Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    4. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by brunes69 · · Score: 2

      Actually what would be best would be spending more resources in combating the economic and social issues that are causing the crime to arise in the first place. Dollars spent on social programs reduce far more crime than dollars spent on police.

    5. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think most of the "whining" you hear about is when police beat up innocent civilians. Perhaps if the police didn't pick so many fights with the people they're supposed to protect, there would be a lot less whining.

      dom

    6. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by MercTech · · Score: 1

      The quirky thing is that when the federal government tries to do something about economic and social issues, more people seem to get locked into a poverty level income than before. Almost as if the plan is to have a significant block of voters dependent on federal largess to survive.

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
    7. Re:Cops looking for an easy way to police by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Not as far as I have seen, very few of the incidents were "innocent" civilians. When you commit a crime, expecting to be able to resist arrest won't get you where you want to be.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  6. Broken Windows Policing by cirby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Enforce the laws on minor crimes, and major crimes go down. You don't have to be a hardass, or pick on anyone in particular, just enforce the common, everyday laws that help keep things working.

    We know this works.

    When people notice that nobody is enforcing the little stuff, they start assuming that they can get away with the larger crimes - and they're usually right.

    The problem is that, after a few years of it working, everyone relaxes and thinks "hey, crime is down, we can slack off a bit," and it's okay, for a while. Then things start slowly getting worse again, and the "corrective measures" tend to be away from the policies that were in force a few years before, because "they stopped working."

    1. Re:Broken Windows Policing by bistromath007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This basically equates to "lock up poor people constantly." They're the ones who are most likely to accidentally blunder into a fine, and least likely to be able to pay it in a timely fashion. They become exponentially less likely to be able to pay after getting locked up, making them even more of a crime risk. So, there goes your "don't have to be a hardass" idea.

      The actual solution is to not have small crimes. If it's not important, don't waste fucking resources on it. About half of what cops arrest people for, they should be referring them to social workers instead.

    2. Re:Broken Windows Policing by felrom · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Maybe the president could start enforcing the gun laws he has the power to enforce, instead of pushing for new restrictions on law abiding citizens?

      In 2010, out of 48,321 felons and fugitives who attempted to illegally purchase firearms, the Department of Justice prosecuted only 44 of them. https://youtu.be/06wJ50p6rMs

      That's 48,321 open and shut cases of felons and fugitives swearing in writing on their ATF Form 4473 that they can legally posses a gun, when they couldn't. The Justice Department gladly allows 99.91% of the prohibited felons who attempt to buy a gun from a federally licensed dealer simply walk free. Right there are 48,321 minor crimes that could have been enforced that weren't.

    3. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the DoJ virtually never prosecutes violations of gun laws, why is it a big deal that they are trying to create new gun laws?

    4. Re:Broken Windows Policing by epine · · Score: 0

      instead of pushing for new restrictions on law abiding citizens

      I didn't know we had two sets of books.

      By the way, in the Chicago Manual, "law abiding" as a modifier is written "law-abiding", so I'm already suspecting you're one of those selective law abiders (to hell with the Nazi rules), who sometimes defers keeping the gun safe locked, and yet you probably don't think you should go straight to jail. After all, what could possibly deter B&E better than an unlocked gun safe?

      Crime Gun Theft

      The FBI keeps a database of all guns reported stolen and it seems to capture a remarkably high percentage upwards of 75%â"of all of the roughly 240,000 guns stolen from homes each year (according to the National Crime Victims Survey) and the 6,000 reported stolen from licensed dealers

      What "law abider" generally references when someone runs it up the flag pole in this way is "righteously selective law abider" (let's not even discuss the speed "limit") whose home is his castle, eighty proof.

    5. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the DoJ virtually never prosecutes violations of gun laws, why is it a big deal that they are trying to create new gun laws?

      That is part of the argument, why are they trying to make more heavy-handed laws that just make things difficult for responsible legal owners when there are plenty of underenforced laws on the books that would take care of most of the illegal purchases?

    6. Re:Broken Windows Policing by whoever57 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Enforce the laws on minor crimes, and major crimes go down. You don't have to be a hardass, or pick on anyone in particular, just enforce the common, everyday laws that help keep things working.

      We know this works.

      Citation? And one that doesn't simply show crime numbers reducing, because reduced lead in the environment explains the reduction

      Let's face it, even the police don't believe this. The police are able to get away with misconduct with insignificant or no consequences.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    7. Re:Broken Windows Policing by DarkVader · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're talking about the old "broken windows" theory.

      It's been discredited, of course. It doesn't actually accomplish anything other than locking up poor people, and it's been used in a very disproportionally racist manner.

      When you do a comparison of crime rates in cities that used it and cities that didn't, both have seen a decrease in crime. Probably the most likely reason has been the removal of lead from gasoline, significantly reducing the degree of low-level lead poisoning.

    8. Re:Broken Windows Policing by redmid17 · · Score: 1

      WTF are you ranting about?

    9. Re:Broken Windows Policing by redmid17 · · Score: 2

      "The areas that received additional attention experienced a 20% reduction in calls to the police. The study concluded that cleaning up the physical environment was more effective than misdemeanor arrests and that increasing social services had no effect"

      Get your racist, bullshit trash theories out of here and maybe join the 21st century. That retarded idea was old and busted twenty years ago

    10. Re:Broken Windows Policing by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem in any kind of engineering -- and we're talking about social engineering here -- is that everything has its drawbacks.

      The foundation of modern policing is a focus on two functions: bringing people to justice, and keeping the peace. You can unquestionably obtain gains in controlling certain kinds of disorder by adding a third function to he police: acting as an instrument behavioral control on the populace. The drawback is that this puts police into a position of habitual conflict with populations they serve, undermining the Peelian principle that the police are the people, and the people the police.

      Over time the police begin to be viewed less as public servants and more like an occupying army. Since this process takes time, we ought to be skeptical of short term results that show improvements in statistical measures of public order. Think of public respect and cooperation for the police as a kind of social capital. If in toting up progress you ignore the capital you're spending you're not getting a true picture.

      Public cooperation has been the foundation of successful policing for almost two hundred years, since Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police in 1829. We should think long and hard about abandoning, or even tinkering with that model.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    11. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Gavagai80 · · Score: 2

      Another solution is to make fines be a percentage of income, with perhaps a small amount of community service replacing them for the unemployed.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    12. Re:Broken Windows Policing by swb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The actual solution is to not have small crimes.

      Once you eliminate victimless crimes (drugs and prostitution), what exactly are small crimes? I'd say legalize drugs and prostitution, enforcement of prohibition on those items has been a disaster for civil liberties.

      Is the cluster of "civil order" crimes, like not blocking the sidewalk, lurking, panhandling, loitering? I can sort of agree, seeing as they can (and probably are) highly selectively enforced. But having been in downtown areas where they were actually happening, I find myself wishing they were being vigorously enforced. People who crowd the sidewalk basically looking for a confrontation, aggressive panhandling, and so on make being in urban areas unpleasant. I want to be able to walk on the public sidewalk unimpeded by people loitering, especially people who use hostility and aggressive behavior to claim the space or challenge passersby.

      After that, I don't know what you'd consider a small crime. Most crimes involving private properly may be small by some dollar-denominated measure, but to the people involved they were real hassles -- a bike stolen, sunglasses stolen from a car, etc.

      On the whole, though, I'd say broken windows policing makes some kind of common sense by enforcing laws that mandate good civil public behavior and respect for private property. Not doing so seems to breed a lack of respect for civil order and make enforcement seem more selective than it already does.

    13. Re: Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like that poor guy killed by the cops for selling single cigarettes - there's a spotlight on American society. At least Obama is *finally* trying to do something about it.

    14. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about having reasonable gun laws on the books as well, like what is done in New York City? What they have there has turned the city from a mugging hellhole into the safest big city in the US.

    15. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Woldscum · · Score: 1

      If the DoJ virtually never prosecutes violations of gun laws, why is it a big deal that they are trying to create new gun laws?

      By definition a criminal does not follow the law. New laws only affect the law abading. Correct? SO new laws do not affect criminals one bit and only restrict the freedom of the law abiding. OR create NEW criminals who will not follow the new laws.

    16. Re: Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sarcasm?

    17. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is what NYC either does or used to do. The reason why it works is because there are so many people jailed waiting for trial that there is a two year wait if you can't post bail. This is not a fair system because it means that people who cannot afford bail are locked up without a conviction for a long time (arguably longer than all but the more severe felonies.)

      The problem with the US is that the focus is on locking people up. Well, without any job skills, much less chance of employment [1], the recipients of the "lock them up for jaywalking" just come right back to prison, because they have no function in society. Perfect for private prisons, although it is actually a true miracle that the Federal government is phasing them out (although it is likely they will be back with a vengeance come next year, because both political candidates running are staunchly for having the prisons run for profit.)

      The "broken windows" policing does work... but the sentences for small things shouldn't be two years behind bars. It should be something fitting the crime, similar to how European countries mete out fines based on your income.

      [1]: Most HR departments in businesses want to see an -arrest- record, not -convictions-. They believe that acquittals can be bought off, but if a cop thinks someone is guilty to do the handcuffs and paperwork, they are guilty.

    18. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you don't believe that breaking someone's windows, vandalism, graffiti, etc shouldn't be crimes? Things like that are the "small crimes" that the Broken Windows Theory is talking about.

    19. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      New York and safe?
      Ha haa.
      USA has 2 amendment.
      Gun restrictions and banning does not work, becouse criminals will always get guns (even from "bad" cops). The safest places are the areas where people can conceal or open carry guns.

    20. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      My question for you is, do you think that vandalism and graffiti shouldn't be crimes? Or do you think they should be treated like robbery and murder?
      Under the broken windows theory of policing, vandalism and graffiti are the two primary "small crimes" which they advocate cracking down on.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    21. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      Germany uses day-fines, which are clamped between 1 and 30,000 EUR. That works fairly well AFAICT.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    22. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      We know this works.

      Except for the part where most (all?) studies that measure the effects of broken windows policing don't find any positive result.

      Now, it gets repeated a lot. And it has a compelling (if, based on evidence, incorrect) rationalle. But that only "works" like Reaganomics.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    23. Re:Broken Windows Policing by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      We know this works.

      No, we really don't. Whether or not this works remains a matter of controversy, and there is little unambiguous evidence to support either side of the debate.

    24. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe it's the 8th amendment that already covers that. But nobody wants to enforce it. If you read the supporting documentation for the amendment (something people never like to do and rather prefer to see how far they can misconstrue the headline) it says that unreasonable fines shall not be levied because we will not have begger jails, and that this won't be a country where people will be jailed simply for being poor. Yup. Nobody in government gives a damn about that one.

    25. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [[Citation Needed]]

    26. Re:Broken Windows Policing by bosef1 · · Score: 2

      As I understand, there's a Catch-22 associated with the ATF background check: from what I've been told, the only way to see if the background check thinks you are prohibited from owning a gun is to submit the paperwork for a background check. And since no gun shop is going to submit the paperwork if you aren't going to buy a gun, or if you say "No I can't possess a gun", the only way to check is to try and buy a gun, submit the paperwork, and see if it comes back negative.

      While I agree that a 1-in-1000 prosecution rate for felony gun purchases is probably too low, a lot of those cases are probably people who either didn't know they couldn't buy a gun, and the system correctly prevented them from buying a gun; or people who wanted to find out if they were now eligible to buy a gun, and the system correct prevented them from buying one. So to meet the presumed objective of "keep felons from buying guns", the system appears to be working, and I'd bet a lot of these people aren't repeat offenders (i.e., they don't keep going to try and buy guns once they find out they can't), so it's not worth pursing a case for someone who couldn't have known any better. The ATF is probably actually looking primarily for repeat offenders, either trying multiple stores in succession, or trying multiple stores in different counties or states.

      What we probably need is to 1) spend some more time following up on these cases to make sure these people aren't turning around and stealing firearms, and 2) coming up with a better system of checking your ATF gun purchasing status without perjuring yourself.

    27. Re:Broken Windows Policing by pete6677 · · Score: 1

      Most HR departments in businesses want to see an -arrest- record, not -convictions-.

      [citation needed]

      Actually such a request is specifically illegal in many jurisdictions.

    28. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Its not racist at all. The races of those involved is entirely incidental, as is the relative percentages-by-race of those involved.

    29. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Graffiti should result in some community service to repaint whatever they tagged, plus maybe some time with a social worker because the kid likely has a troubled family.

      Vandalism should be a small fine to replace whatever got broke plus a small amount on top of that.

      Enforce those, and you have kids who are less likely to grow up and become adults that do big crimes.

    30. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Cederic · · Score: 1

      The law as written is not racist. The way the law was applied was assessed and determined to be racist - and that's the old fashioned use of the term, not the new-age internet one.

      The races of those involved is entirely incidental, as is the relative percentages-by-race of those involved.

      You have a published paper on why we should entirely disregard race when assessing the implementation of the policy? Just that 'entirely incidental' implies there are other factors at play, and that those negate the racial biases. This would contradict other research.

    31. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This basically equates to "lock up poor people constantly." They're the ones who are most likely to accidentally blunder into a fine, and least likely to be able to pay it in a timely fashion. They become exponentially less likely to be able to pay after getting locked up, making them even more of a crime risk. So, there goes your "don't have to be a hardass" idea.

      The actual solution is to not have small crimes. If it's not important, don't waste fucking resources on it. About half of what cops arrest people for, they should be referring them to social workers instead.

      >Chicago's Experiment In Predictive Policing Isn't Working

      A.K.A. "Minority Report" (literally).

    32. Re:Broken Windows Policing by budgenator · · Score: 1

      I'd go along with decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana, but other drugs would need a more intensive intervention. The financial pressures of drug addiction lead to more destructive crimes. Non-violent drug offenders could get probation/enforced rehab instead of prison for small amount possession. Prostitution is usually not a victimless crime, prostitutes typically are in an involuntary servitude arrangement with a pimp, so the prostitute is the victim. Maybe when Hookers get Health/Dental coverage, workman's comp, unemployment insurance, uniform allowance and a 501K, I'll rethink the victimless part.

      Obama could take marijuana off the schedule 1 narcotics list with just his signature on an Executive Order.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    33. Re:Broken Windows Policing by budgenator · · Score: 2

      Maybe the president could start enforcing the gun laws he has the power to enforce, instead of pushing for new restrictions on law abiding citizens?

      Because that's what liberals do, they make a grandstand play, pass a law with a feel-good title, catch some news coverage for trying to solve a problem, then become derelict on enforcement because it might actually reduce some minority on minority crime. If you reduce minority on minority crime, the minorities might become self-sufficient and tell the liberals to go to hell with their plantation mentality.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    34. Re:Broken Windows Policing by budgenator · · Score: 1

      If you have been convicted of a felony, it is illegal for you to posses a firearm. You know if you have been convicted of a felony, and felons almost automatically go through the parole system and are counselled on the illegality of them possessing a firearm. There may be an outlier cases where someone was mistakenly put on a list or had a conviction over-turned without being removed, but the vast majority of those failing background check were aware they were prohibited from weapons possession.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    35. Re:Broken Windows Policing by ananamouse · · Score: 1

      >Probably the most likely reason has been the removal of lead from gasoline, significantly reducing the degree of low-level lead poisoning
      Blue on black. Favorite Daughter No. 1 started teaching six or seven years ago after majoring in ed. Wife just retired after 33 years of teaching high school science. I asked them about this because I thought that for sure it would be noticeable by now. They report seeing nothing. Apparently some other substance in the soup of our existence stepped into the breach. (Arsenic from lignite power plants? Estrogen mimicking plasticizing additives?)

      Looking at what I see in the media, social media, and workplaces I interact with it would be a plausible hypothesis that dose makes the poison and at some small level lead is a nutrient of some sort.

    36. Re:Broken Windows Policing by swb · · Score: 1

      The "financial pressures" of drug addiction are the result of the risks of drug dealing being built into the price of illegal drugs, not the material price of drugs.

      I bought 150 mg (total, 30 x 5 mg) oxycodone for $6.32 when I last had a prescription. That price is so low that the pharmacy doesn't even charge you the copay, they just sell it at the retail price. And that retail price has all the high costs associated with an insane amount of tracking and regulation of a schedule II drug built into it, including profit for the drug maker, distributor and retail outlet. Opiates are trivial drugs to manufacture, pennies per dose at any kind of industrial scale.

      Heroin would be less than a dollar a dose if it was legalized, there would be no financially induced crime to support heroin habits if it was legalized. Even if you excise taxed it by 500% to make its self-fund treatment programs and miscellaneous ancillary social programs and there still wouldn't be any wave of property crimes to support habits.

      And when I say legalize prostitution, of course it's implied that I'm not talking about prostitution as structured as an illegal transaction but as a voluntary legal trade, which would presumably be likely to have medical coverage as a requirement for any kind of employer running a house of prostitution given the inherent health issues associated with sexual contact.

      Of course Obama doesn't take marijuana off Schedule I because he's beholden to the establishment political interests -- police, pharma, and probably some polling-identified bloc of voters Democratic political strategists don't want to offend because they let them win some key state.

    37. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what exactly are small crimes?

      J-walking, loitering, public urination, litering

    38. Re:Broken Windows Policing by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      There should be no laws criminalizing mere possession of any substance intended for consumption, in a society that respects bodily autonomy, period. Possession with intent to distribute, and especially for commercial purposes, is another matter.

      Prostitution is involuntarily precisely because it's illegal in and of itself - since prostitutes cannot resort to police and courts to have the same protection from the society as other occupations. In countries which have properly legalized that industry, like New Zealand, the pimp problem has diminished significantly, because prostitutes can now just report anyone attempting to pimp to police, without fear for themselves. I would strongly recommend studying NZ experience with prostitution in general, and comparing it to Sweden (where the "ban it and crack down on it" model has been followed for a long time).

    39. Re:Broken Windows Policing by MercTech · · Score: 1

      No, you don't have to buy a gun to see the results of a background check. You just pay a nominal fee and the check is run. More if a fingerprint match check is run. Some states do the check via the DMV. Some states require you go to law enforcement to get the check done. An FBI background with fingerprint check runs around $50. A NICS check on a name and social security number runs $10 to $25 depending on where you live. Firearms dealers pay a lot less per check as that is part of their licensing to sell firearms. You could consider the FFL fees as paying a big chunk of the NICS check fees.
              I do work that requires a clearance. Some employers want to do it themselves. Others want you to attach a criminal background check done in the previous 40 days to a pre-employment package. The guys that want you to pay for your own background reimburse once you pass certificaton checks but you are out the money if you can't pass the re-cert tests.
              One big downfall of the NICS background checks are that a person has to enter the data into the system. The fruit-loop that shot up the church in Charleston South Carolina had a felony conviction that would have blocked him from purchasing a firearm. But, the court clerks hadn't entered his felony conviction into the database and he passed the NICS check.
              Passing laws to increase the onerous hoops to jump through will just piss off people and provide no more protection.

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
    40. Re:Broken Windows Policing by dywolf · · Score: 1

      no we don't know this works.

      what we do know is that it quickly becomes "lock up non white and or poor people".

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    41. Re: Broken Windows Policing by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      He shouldn't have broken the law...then fought being arrested for no reason.He chose his path, trying to make it out to be a minor thing when it wasn't is silly.

      Resisting arrest is a serious crime for good reason, a big guy like that fighting the police will result in a significant reaction.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    42. Re:Broken Windows Policing by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      If prostitution is legalized, the slavery aspect disappears. When the enslaved person has the ability to go to the police, the ability to enslave them disappears. As it is right now, the prostitutes get arrested just for being prostitutes, even if unwillingly, so they fear the police.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    43. Re:Broken Windows Policing by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      It's a common tactic, possibly well-meaning, possibly to deflect criticism of actual racism.

      The old literacy test for voting laws weren't generally racist as written. But they were certainly racist as implemented.

      Today's racism is (or was, until Trump) more subtle. But it's certainly there, and while individual cops may not be racists, the police taken as a whole in this country certainly are.

  7. Random? by denisbergeron · · Score: 1

    The algorithm is some random picking in the felon list!

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
  8. So long as we're trying such elaborate measures... by bistromath007 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Perhaps the police in Chicago are simply unsuited to protecting people from gun-toting criminals, and they should allow law-abiding citizens to do it themselves.

  9. The targets aren't fixed points. by ka9dgx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem with predicting where to go to stop crimes is that many of the crimes in Chicago are gang related, instead of property related. Houses to be robbed don't move, but rival gang members can be found anywhere. Predictive algorithms assume fixed targets.

    If there was a real crackdown on Gangs, crime would decrease for a while, but I think that too many bribes are preventing that from happening. It would be far better to legalize drugs, defunding the gangs.

    Of course, as a privileged white male from the suburbs, I could be wrong.

    1. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It would be far better to legalize drugs, defunding the gangs.

      Of course, as a privileged white male from the suburbs, I could be wrong.

      Once upon a time, we tried a "noble experiment" that we called Prohibition. For Chicago, as for most of the nation, the result was vastly increased crime, and gun battles in the streets (remember "the Night Chicago Died", anyone?).

      Eventually, we got rid of that particular notion, and thing settled down.

      And then we decided we needed to Do Something (about the recreational chemicals of choice of certain, shall we say, darker-skinned citizens) and now we have The War On Drugs.

      So far, the War on Drugs (AKA Prohibition II) has had pretty much exactly the same effects as Prohibition.

      So, let's try a really bold experiment! End the War On Drugs (Prohibition II), and see if it has the same effects that ending Prohibition had. After all, we can always restart the War On Drugs if ending it doesn't fix the problems.

      And, what the Hell, it just might work to let people drink/smoke/inject whatever they want, rather than trying to be Mommy to every citizen....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    2. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Solandri · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't entirely disagree with your position on drugs (it has philosophical incompatibilities between it and the concept of democracy because of the loss of free will due to addiction, which need to be resolved). But having briefly done business in Chicago, the city has a massive government corruption problem. Various inspectors expected bribes to "overlook" minor faults which really shouldn't have resulted in citations (e.g. dead light bulb in unused warehouse space). Various permitting officials wanted bribes to "expedite" our applications so they wouldn't sit on the back burner for weeks or months.

      Corruption drains money from legitimate economic activity, which ultimately depresses wages, reduces job opportunities, and increases prices. The poor are the most impacted by these consequences, and it helps keep them poor and in ghettos. I'm not saying this is the root cause of all their problems, but neither is the War on Drugs. The vast majority of problems have multiple causes. Afghanistan doesn't have an opium production problem simply because the price of heroin is high, but also because its economy is so shot it's nearly impossible to make a living any other way.

    3. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by redmid17 · · Score: 1

      No bribes. CPD is just awful at their jobs. Well I guess you could make an argument for malicious incompetence with respect to their clean manipulation of crime statistics, but they are probably not corrupt.

    4. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the biggest problem is that the elected officials choose to carry out the wishes of their corruptors rather than what's best for the people. Hence, the most expensive healthcare system in the world, a ridiculous bond system, and so on and forth.

    5. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Up here in Detroit we saw this with Corrupt Kwamie. We were poor to begin with, but to see kid parks, real estate, bridges, streets or anything spiral down to less than maintained is sad. I do not think we can go lower, god i hope not. There is no magic pill, just good old fashioned consistent police work and community events, fairs, street food festivals, fun stuff for the citizenry to get them together to talk. (not police to community outreach)

    6. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > If there was a real crackdown on Gangs, crime would decrease for a while,

      We actually had that once but it was too successful so it was stopped. WTF!?

      Scroll down to 7. The Harvard Man of How America Lost the War on Drugs to see how the power of Name & Shame worked.

      7. The Harvard Man

      For the cops on the front lines of the War on Drugs, the federal government's fixation with marijuana was deeply perplexing. As they saw it, the problem wasn't pot but the drug-related violence that accompanied cocaine and other hard drugs. After the crack epidemic in the late 1980s, police commissioners around the country, like Lee Brown in Houston, began adding more officers and developing computer mapping to target neighborhoods where crime was on the rise. The crime rate dropped. But by the mid-1990s, police in some cities were beginning to realize there was a certain level that they couldn't get crime below. Mass jailings weren't doing the trick: Only fifteen percent of those convicted of federal drug crimes were actual traffickers; the rest were nothing but street-level dealers and mules, who could always be replaced.

      Police in Boston, concerned about violence between youth drug gangs, turned for assistance to a group of academics. Among them was a Harvard criminologist named David Kennedy. Working together, the academics and members of the department's anti-gang unit came up with what Kennedy calls a "quirky" strategy and convinced senior police commanders to give it a try. The result, which began in 1995, was the Boston Gun Project, a collaborative effort among ministers and community leaders and the police to try to break the link between the drug trade and violent crime. First, the project tracked a particular drug-dealing gang, mapping out its membership and operations in detail. Then, in an effort called Operation Ceasefire, the dealers were called into a meeting with preachers and parents and social-service providers, and offered a deal: Stop the violence, or the police will crack down with a vengeance. "We know the seventeen guys you run with," the gangbangers were told. "If anyone in your group shoots somebody, we'll arrest every last one of you." The project also extended drug treatment and other assistance to anyone who wanted it.

      The effort worked: The rates of homicide and violence among young men in Boston dropped by two-thirds. Drug dealing didn't stop -- "people continued what they were doing," Kennedy concedes, "but they put their guns down." As Kennedy reflected on the success of the Boston project, which ran for five years, he wondered if he had discovered a deeper truth about drug-related violence. If the murders weren't a necessary component of the drug trade -- if it was possible to separate the two -- perhaps cities could find a way to reduce the violence, even if they could do nothing about the drugs.

      In 2001, Kennedy got a call from the mayor of San Francisco that gave him a chance to examine his theories in a new setting. The city had experienced a recent spike in its murder rate, much of it caused by an ongoing feud between two drug-dealing gangs -- Big Block and West Mob -- that had resulted in dozens of murders over the years. Could Kennedy, the mayor asked, help police figure out how to stop the killings?

      Kennedy flew out to San Francisco and met with police. But as he researched the history of the violence, it seemed to confirm his findings in Boston. Though both Big Block and West Mob were involved in dealing drugs, the shootings were not really drug-related -- the two groups occupied different territories and were not battling over turf. "The feud had started over who would perform next at a neighborhood rap event," says Kennedy, now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "They had been killing each other ever since."

      Such evidence suggested that d

    7. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once upon a time, we tried a "noble experiment" that we called Prohibition. For Chicago, as for most of the nation, the result was vastly increased crime, and gun battles in the streets (remember "the Night Chicago Died", anyone?).

      Gosh, glad there was no more organized crime in Chicago in 1934, then! Oh, wait.
      Wait, maybe it was 1935 that Chicago got rid of organized crime. Oh, dear.

      Eventually, we got rid of that particular notion, and thing settled down.

      Citation needed.

      So, let's try a really bold experiment! End the War On Drugs (Prohibition II), and see if it has the same effects that ending Prohibition had. After all, we can always restart the War On Drugs if ending it doesn't fix the problems.

      Gee, just like we could restart prohibition today! Oh, wait...

      And, what the Hell, it just might work to let people drink/smoke/inject whatever they want, rather than trying to be Mommy to every citizen....

      Yeah... How many cokeheads in withdrawl have you had to deal with? It's real fun when they keep screaming at you in a paranoid delusion.
      How many people have you tried to take care of who are having a bad trip on LSD?
      What's your plan to increase budget for emergency medical services for an increased number of heroin ODs?

      Maybe you should see a few of those things up close before deciding drugs are ok, mmmkay?

    8. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ... it just might work to let people ...

      Yes and no: When the British pushed opium into China, lots of people became addicted. Since there weren't any social programs, we don't know the scale of the damage other than massive.

      Now states in the USA are decriminalizing cannabis and discovering it causes a few problems: 1) Cannabis at the moment doesn't come in measurements of 'standard drinks'. A chocolate bar can contain the same dosage as 10 joints without any warning; 2) There's no safe usage rules like 3 'standard drinks' per day; or, 1 'standard drink' per hour; 3) There's no health recovery/management services for cannabis use, except AA/NA, for people who need to detox.

      Like many things, alcohol use was slowly regulated over many decades. Now that infrastructure needs to be applied to other forms of drug use.

    9. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken like a true dissident. Papers please!

      Seriously though, going with what you said, this is exactly what ALL the governments should be doing. Instead they squabble over meaningless shit and enforce their will on to those who just want to be left the fuck alone.

      Kind Regards!

    10. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Harvey+Manfrenjenson · · Score: 1

      Yeah... How many cokeheads in withdrawl have you had to deal with?

      Lots. It's part of my job.

      It's real fun when they keep screaming at you in a paranoid delusion.

      That's not how a coke addict in withdrawal behaves. I'm wondering now if *you've* ever seen one.

      How many people have you tried to take care of who are having a bad trip on LSD?

      Not that many, because LSD isn't a commonly used drug in Chicago, as far as I know. It's out there, but I would suppose it represents less than 0.01% of the drug use in this town. How many have *you* taken care of?

    11. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Procrasti · · Score: 1

      > it has philosophical incompatibilities between it and the concept of democracy because of the loss of free will due to addiction, which need to be resolved

      I'll resolve this for you now, the best I can, which is that philosophical free will simply does not exist. There is nothing in physics that gives rise to free will, we are deterministic (though chaotic and unpredictable) bioelectrochemical machines. Free will is merely an illusion. We have no more free choice than a planet does to orbit the sun, or a rock dropped from height to fall to the ground.

      In microeconomics, we study economic agents AS IF they were following an unknown utility function. Not that they have a utility function, but they behave as if they were always maximising a utility function. In this sense economic agents have a WILL, or a desire. The free market, maximises all agents ability to follow their WILL FREELY, in so much as they don't harm other agent's ability to follow their free will.

      In this sense, a drug addict maximally follows their free will when they are allowed to consume the drug they are addicted to. That maximises their free will, completely independent of whether or not philisophical free will exists, which I propose it does not.

      So, drug addiction then has no philosophical incompatibility with democracy or the free market and free will at all.

      For further philosophical examination of this problem you can read Jon Stuart Mill's On Liberty, or study an online course in fundamentals of microeconomics.

    12. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by moeinvt · · Score: 1

      "Maybe you should see a few of those things up close before deciding drugs are ok, mmmkay?"

      Forget about whether or not "drugs are ok". How about looking at it in terms of a government claiming that it has the authority to regulate your personal consumption habits? Does government own your body or do YOU own your body? Drugs may be "bad", but what gives government the just power to tell you what you can and can't inhale, imbibe, snort or inject?

      The number of opiate ODs would definitely go down in an environment where drugs were decriminalized. Most of the ODs are due to the fact that in a black market, people don't really know what they are buying. Do a web search on "rash of ODs". You'll find 100s of results from all over the country. A particularly potent batch of heroin (or fentanyl that people think is heroin) hits the streets in a certain area and suddenly there's a spike in ODs.

      Alcoholism also has horrific consequences for the individual but an alcohol ban was a complete disaster. Why is the "war on drugs" any different? If a person wants to ruin their life and/or health with drugs, it's ultimately their decision, and most of them are going to do it regardless of what idiotic laws are passed.

    13. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by MercTech · · Score: 1

      It is rather ironic that the "drug problem" popped up around the time government organizations were getting ready to lay off all the extra police that were hired to enforce prohibition.

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
    14. Re:The targets aren't fixed points. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That nigga Buck a fiend, tell momma he done smoked the TV
      I ain't know he fucked with more dope than B.G.
      Plus a nigga sipped more syrup than Pimp C
      Man keepin these muthafuckers rich ain't easy
      Especially when a nigga wanna stunt like Jeezy
      And his CDs' didn't sell like his CDs'
      Man, that nigga blew all of his chips on dem breezies
      Mad 'cause the world won't treat him like Weezy
      Look I don't give a FUCK, nigga please believe me
      No nigga in no vocal booth around can see me
      It's crazy how I make this shit look oh so easy
      They say, "50?, naw I don't fuck with him, he oh so greasy
      Yeah, he used to share that paper now he oh so greedy"
      It's funny how they shit on me, 'cause then they need me
      See me I'm number one, I'm loadin up my gun
      I catch ya if you done, you pussy nigga run


      -- 50 CENT "So Disrespectful"

  10. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    have a no-questions-asked firearm buyback program

    So, I rob a gun shop in the next State, in the sure knowledge that the Chicago PD will act as my fence? Yah, that's a good idea.

    Note, by the by, that many places in the USA (basically all of them, since Chicago has one of the worst crime problems in the USA, and some of the most restrictive gun laws) get by just fine without worrying so much about guns in private hands.

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  11. One is not enough by houghi · · Score: 1

    You need three and not only one to predict crimes.That way the two can overrule the one that is wrong. Everybody knows that. They even turned the manual into a documentary.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  12. Say it isn't so by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Chicago's Experiment In Predictive Policing Isn't Working"

    Oh, so predicting the future doesn't work?

    Damn, who could have guessed that prophesying is a tricky business? Who could have foreseen that? :)

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Say it isn't so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No one could have foreseen that because that would be prophesying which is a tricky business.

    2. Re: Say it isn't so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well the idiots who say self driving cars are ready and perfect and all that just because they can't drive are wrong on all counts and never shut up either. (Please ignore the entourage of human attendants carefully mapping and grooming the routes these cars take. I'm sure they'll all come with a pit crew)

    3. Re:Say it isn't so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chicago also kind of missed the little "innocent until proven guilty" value of American government.

    4. Re:Say it isn't so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, obviously not the Chicago police!

    5. Re:Say it isn't so by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

      We as a country lost that a long time ago. If you've dealt with any law enforcement agency, the approach is "guilty until proven innocent." The burden of proof now lies on you.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
  13. Re:Seems stupid... by guruevi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is that possible - if 50% of all crimes are committed by black people, less than 50% remains for each of the dozen or so other ethnic minority groups or whites in the US. Additionally 100%? Look at a map of convicted sex offenders and they're pretty evenly spread between black, white, Hispanic and other neighborhoods. Sex offenses are pretty evenly spread across populations because pretty much all men are attracted to pubescent females, it's a rather primitive reflex.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  14. The only thing that works in Chicago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is corruption and cutting politics! The entire state is F*cked! Glad I moved!

  15. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Gun buyback programs have been tried for years. Is there any statistical evidence that they work? I haven't seen any and I doubt it. These buyback programs just give thieves more cause to break into houses looking for guns to steal.

    If you want to reduce the gun violence you have to get rid of the drug dealers and gangs. Good luck with that when inner city young men see those as the only options to get ahead, and we allow both types to come freely across our southern border to spread their control.

  16. Re: perhaps a buyback program? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only problems with guns are Democrats. See Texas bitch.

  17. Re:Seems stupid... by thesupraman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Stop lying, although I know you find that hard.
    http://www.sarsonline.org/resources-stats/reports-laws-statics

    52% of rapists are white, 83.5% of the population is white.
    Therefore non whites are over 4.5 times as likely to be a rapist.
    (the normalised numbers are .62 for whites, 2.9 for non whites)

    That is on top of the estimates that rape is estimated over 5 TIMES less likely to be reported in non white communities.

    None of which is good, but those are the facts.
    All rape is bad, very very bad. Misusing statistics to focus on the wrong people is just as bad - you are disrespecting
    the victims by trying to use their suffering for your own political purposes.

  18. False certainty by mattwarden · · Score: 1

    It is simply not possible to know whether this technique is working or not. This is an alternative histories problem, and you have to choose between a bunch of flawed options to detect effectiveness. Each option is so flawed as to render the certainty suggested by the headline inappropriate.

  19. The proper use of heat maps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps the police should increase the surveillance of the areas pointed out by the heat maps to increase the conviction rate at least. Police should also involve themselves in the community events in those areas to increase the trust of the people, and make sure their act on the tips and calls coming from those areas very well. Serve and protect, serve and protect.

    1. Re:The proper use of heat maps by DarkVader · · Score: 1

      No, that's what they tried.

      This experiment is a failure, and is causing real-world harm.

      The best thing to do is delete the data and stop collecting more. Sometimes a hard drive wipe really is the best thing to do.

    2. Re:The proper use of heat maps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not according to the summary. According to it, they went after individuals and not the area in general. I can't possibly click the articles to verify if the summary had nothing to do with the reality, of course.

  20. Until they close Honan Square by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    we shouldn't consider them a legitimate police force.

    1. Re:Until they close Honan Square by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      * Homan

  21. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by Calydor · · Score: 2

    From a European point of view, from someone who has no idea what the local laws are in Chicago, it sounds like you're encouraging allowing vigilante justice.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  22. Meta-predictions by ljw1004 · · Score: 1

    Predictions about predictions about crime

    Predictive policing isn't working? -- no one would have seen that coming!

    1. Re:Meta-predictions by budgenator · · Score: 1

      When I was in Chicago, in the "Miracle Mile" area a year or two ago, I don't see any crime (Unless you count pan-handling), but I saw a beat cop on every corner and a roving patrol in between; seems predicting Tourists in over-price hotels and restaurants would attract criminals and a high density of police would deter them seems to work.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  23. Re:Not a problem by PPH · · Score: 1

    sometimes the innocent do get caught up in the gun fights

    Teach marksmanship in high school.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  24. Another vindication of BOTG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another study vindicating "boots on the ground", and that does not mean "boots in patrol car".

  25. This is bad, still not as bad as Honan Square... by jools33 · · Score: 4, Interesting
  26. Re: perhaps a buyback program? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mostly what you get with gun buyback programs are non functional antiques or stuff from people who unintentionally became gun owners, such as through inheritance, and lack knowledge of how to more profitably dispose of the weapons by selling them to a dealer.

    The cops where i live did a gun buyback last year. Set up a huge parking lot with tents and traffic control points and all that. It was virtually empty all day. Made me smile to see guns NOT being destroyed unnecessarily.

    Until, that is, I watched the news touting what a 'success' it was, with tight camera shots deliberately not showing the wide open spaces and most people standing around with nothing to do. Propaganda is strong in this allegedly free society.

  27. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by PPH · · Score: 1

    they should allow law-abiding citizens to do it themselves

    I support the right of people to bear arms. That said; most of the violence in Chicago is gang vs gang. And from their point of view, they are protecting their neighborhood or favorite dealing street corner from their rivals. Things that they value as much as you value your family and home. It's a culture thing, and until you can change that and give these people something worthwhile (in our eyes) to defend, things will keep going on as they are.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  28. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

    The local laws in Chicago are some of the most restrictive in the USA. Basically, it reduces to "no guns for you unless you're politically connected".

    And yet, the bad guys still seem to get guns with no real issues. Perhaps because if you're a criminal, you see nothing particularly wrong with breaking the gun laws, but who knows?

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  29. Re:This is bad, still not as bad as Honan Square.. by whoever57 · · Score: 2

    Mod parent up.

    I am disgusted by the US media that they have not picked up this story. It's an absolute disgrace, both by the police and the media.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  30. Maybe They Missed The Movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe One of the pre-cogs decided to leave the milk bath?

  31. Re: No chance for meta-tek culture in Chicago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can see by your excellent writing skills, that you my good sir, must have an extremely high IQ. Reading such well written and insightful thoughts makes me feel proud to say fuck Hitler and his tiny pecker followers. White flower. Lulz

  32. Re:Seems stupid... by smooth+wombat · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Because you're assuming, incorrectly, that blacks commit 50% of all crimes.

    Further, I didn't say sex offenders, I said child molesters and child rapists. They are almost all exclusively white.

    Keep trying to twist reality to fit your warped views all you want, it won't happen.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  33. No shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Zero surprise here.

  34. Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fact - every other county in the word that has reasonable gun laws to restrict them to those have actually have a need or use for them - gun related incidents are much much lower.

    The loophole in the US constitution - the right to bear arms is from a time when the US was poor and didn't really have a military , it was a new lawless frontier that wants to keep pesky old Britain out. Yes that makes sense, let the people who choose to be here defend it.

    Today it makes no sense to have this, it serves no use other than to line the pockets of gun makers - they stand to lose the most if there was some real reform in US gun laws, and they'll keep paying anyone off to not have it changed and promote this ideology to the people of the US that they all need to have guns.

    1. Re: Guns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Youre completely out of touch with at least 70% of the US.

    2. Re:Guns by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

      Guns are the wrong point of focus for most gun violence, but it's an easy scapegoat. If you really want to reduce gun violence, legalize the drug trade and increase mental health and drug rehabilitation budgets. There is evidence to back up both of those polices as having a positive impact on gun violence. There is no evidence to support that stricter gun laws in the U.S. reduce gun violence.

      --
      Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
  35. Re: Seems stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep, thats not remotely true.

  36. Re: So long as we're trying such elaborate measure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or maybe we can just admit that these are subhuman cultures and stop expecting civilized behavior from animals. And no, this has nothing to do with race regardless of if a large portion of a particular race is part of the problem.

  37. Re:Seems stupid... by tomxor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    None of which is good, but those are the facts.

    I generally agree with your post and share a dislike for misinterpreted statistic. However I think It's also important to understand that the raw data itself however empirical is quite fallible and cannot be trusted as hard evidence, the gathering of raw data is often as mistreated as the analysis. So referring to them as "facts" (perhaps not what you really meant) borders on 2nd order ignorance in my mind, they are indicators that even after correct analysis are open to interpretation and should be weighted based on the source of data.

  38. Clickbait summary by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The summary leaves out some important information that would tend to blunt the hyperbole it's trying to drive home. From the article:

    It stressed that RAND "evaluated a very early version" of the list, "which has since evolved greatly and has been fully integrated with the Department’s management accountability process." It also points out that "the prediction model discussed in the report is the very early, initial model (Version 1), developed in August, 2012. We are now using Version 5, which is significantly improved."

    A failing grade on the performance of a four-year-old version of the software, (and a four-year-old set of policies and procedures for using same), is hardly a reason to get all hot 'n' bothered, when what really matters is how the program is working today. It's news, and it may be significant, but it tells us nothing about the current effectiveness of the program in question. There are valid moral, ethical, and possibly legal issues around whether such a program should even exist, and whether the police are the right ones to be managing it - but that conversation shouldn't take place in the context of a FUD-driven summary of an article based largely on very stale data.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    1. Re:Clickbait summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A failing grade on the performance of a four-year-old version of the software, (and a four-year-old set of policies and procedures for using same), is hardly a reason...

      Depends on how you're evaluating it. Every new version of the software or change of procedure is a new testing protocol. Has the experiment had a stable testing protocol for long enough to gather statistics? What are they using for a control population?

      It seems more likely that with all the changes they're describing, there will never be enough information to to compile results from this experiment. A lot of money for contractors, though, so I guess that's a win from a certain point of view.

  39. Re: Seems stupid... by smooth+wombat · · Score: 1

    Aww, butthurt much? Don't like reality slapping you in the face?

    Deal with it.

    --
    We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
  40. Re:Seems stupid... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    52% of rapists are white

    No. 52% of convicted rapists may be white, but conviction rates vary widely by race even for the same crimes. A white teenage date-rapist is much more likely to "get away with it" than a black guy.

    83.5% of the population is white.

    Wrong. Whites are about 72% of the population. This isn't 1960.

    None of which is good, but those are the facts.

    Yup. Other than being wildly inaccurate and misleading, those are indeed the "facts".

  41. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by stinerman · · Score: 1

    The policy could theoretically work if Chicago could keep people from driving to Hammond and Gary and buying firearms. They can't so it's probably doing more harm than good.

  42. Re: So long as we're trying such elaborate measure by Calydor · · Score: 1

    This kind of primitive, nonsensical outburst of illogical rage is exactly why Americans shouldn't be allowed to have firearms at all. :-)

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  43. Misleading too by tomhath · · Score: 1

    a move made possible by fewer and shorter sentences for drug offenses,

    The linked article does mention reduced sentences for drug related crimes. But it also makes it clear that drug related crime is a very minor factor in the decision to get away from private prisons.

  44. Re:Seems stupid... by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    you have proof of your assertion about white vs. black teen date-rapists.

    Black ELEMENTARY school kids have a slang about "talking a girl into the bushes", taking her somewhere for molesting and/or rape out of view of the teachers.

    Maybe black rape is more prevalent and at earlier age....

  45. Re: No chance for meta-tek culture in Chicago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And now we see that the noshellswill was right.
    Mister black coward had nothing more than a rant about writing skills and a fancy for a white flower ...
    No statistics or scientific fact to give to counter the noshellswill facts ...

  46. Break off the south side by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Split the city in half along Congress. Give the southern half a new name. Chicago's homicide rate will plummet.

  47. Skynet by BlytheBowman · · Score: 1

    Only it puts people in cuffs instead of launching nukes

  48. Re:Not a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As an added bonus, then the US will do better in biathlon next olympics.

  49. Re:Seems stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you like to make up lies to promote racism? There's a special place in hell for shitbags like you.

    Oh, I see, you're a little liberal shitbag. I should have known. You fucks are racists through and through.

  50. Re: No chance for meta-tek culture in Chicago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And now we see what total fucking morons support noshellswill. He presents no facts, just a load of racist bigotry, then whines when his bullshit is called.

  51. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by blindseer · · Score: 1

    What about people that steal guns from their elderly neighbor? Are we going to have my tax money going toward buying that gun too? How is that not creating an incentive for more crime? This "kid", is he over 18 years old? If not then it is illegal for this "kid" to possess the gun without adult supervision. Does this "kid", assuming he lives in Illinois or state with similar gun laws, have a Firearm Owners Identification Card? How is this "kid" going to carry the gun to the taxpayer funded compensated confiscation program? Does this "kid" have a concealed carry license? Perhaps the "kid" will carry the gun in a clear zip-lock bag in their hand, so it is not concealed but everyone he passes on the street is going to see this gun. Maybe this "kid" will get beat up and robbed for the gun by another "kid" so he can cash in on the deal, or worse.

    I believe that you did not think this through.

    It's not a total solution but will reduce the number of people getting shot which will give victims of violence a better chance at survival and more importantly, reporting their attackers.

    I have to wonder if you've been brainwashed by Mom's Demand Action on Gun Violence or you've not taken your meds this morning. Perhaps you took one pill, or toke, too much.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  52. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by blindseer · · Score: 1

    My sister and her husband live in Illinois and they went out of state to buy a firearm, not Indiana but Iowa. They had to provide ID, submit to a background check, and wait 24 hours for delivery as required by Illinois law because they are legally Illinois residents. Going out of state does not allow a person to bypass federal law, or even many state laws.

    The firearm they purchased had to meet the laws of Illinois on how they define an "assault weapon". I don't know what would happen if they tried to buy something illegal to own in Illinois as an Illinois resident. I have a suspicion that the gun dealers would not sell them because the BATFE frowns upon people that try to bypass state laws, and if a dealer makes the BATFE unhappy then the BATFE makes the dealer unhappy. The levels of "unhappy" the BATFE can bring on a licensed dealer can range from a warning, probation, fines, revocation of their license, all the way up to many many years in federal prison.

    If these people are leaving the state to buy from an unlicensed dealer then they are idiots, because unlicensed dealers are by definition breaking the law and they don't need to leave the state to find those people.

    --
    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  53. Re:Seems stupid... by guruevi · · Score: 2

    Percentage of total child abusers:
    White 51%
    African American 25%
    Hispanic 15%
    American Indian/Alaska Natives 2%
    Asian/Pacific Islanders 1%

    Yeah, exclusively a white problem. Again, fits the demographic and other criminal curves.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  54. Re:Seems stupid... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

    you have proof of your assertion about white vs. black teen date-rapists.

    There is no such thing as "proof" in the social sciences, but if you want evidence, then you can start here and follow the links. Blacks are discriminated against at every step of the process: they are more likely than whites to be arrested for comparable crimes, they are more likely to be prosecuted, and once convicted, they receive harsher sentences.

    Maybe black rape is more prevalent and at earlier age....

    Or maybe it isn't. You have provided no evidence either way.

  55. Chicago - Democrat run since 1931 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Every mayor of that city since 1931 has been a Democrat, with the only apparent exception being the time when Daley (a Democrat elected as a Democrat) ran for re-election in several elections that were held without party labels.

    Same thing for nearly every other big debt-laden and crime-ridden city with large poor minority ghettos. All run for many decades by left wing politicians using left wing policies to deliver utopia:

    Detroit elected its last Republican mayor in 1957.

    Newark last had a Republican mayor about a century ago.

    Baltimore has been run by Democrats since the 1960s.

    Philadelphia has been run by Democrats since 1952.

    Oakland has been run by Democrats since the 1960s.

    St. Louis has been run by Democrats since 1949.

    Cincinnati has been run by Democrats since 1984.

    Milwaukee has been run by Democrats since 1908.

    Buffalo has been run by Democrats since 1965.

    El Paso and Miami have never been run by Republicans

    Los Angeles has had only 1 Republican mayor in the past 54 years.

    New York city was a complete mess after decades of Democrats, then elected Rudy Giuliani who cleaned the place up during his 6 years and was then term-limited out and replaced by faux-Republican/faux-Democrat/faux-Independent (let's face it: he is his own party) Bloomberg, who then passed the baton to Democrat de Blasio

    What's that old saying that's often attributed to Einstein? Oh, yeah: Insanity is defined by doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

    1. Re:Chicago - Democrat run since 1931 by dywolf · · Score: 1

      I love how you leave out cities like San Fran, NYC, Portland...liberal as hell, safest cities in the land, low debt, low crime, long life expectancies, ranked among best places to live.

      Oh and you also left out Republican "success stories" like Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Bakersfield....or hell, just the entire states of KS and OK, dumpster fires of debt and poor planning cause they keep cutting taxes regardless of annual consecutive budget failures.

      And especially love the way you also want to ignore that many of the cities you list are in GOP controlled states, where the state legislature has enacted state laws to block those cities frm doing certain things....like enact gun control or higher minimum wages.

      go peddle your bullmanure else where AC.

      also:
      Cities with higher homicide rates than Chicago in 2014
      All numbers represent homicides per 100,000 people.

      St. Louis, MO 49.9
      Detroit, MI 43.5
      New Orleans, LA 38.7
      Jackson, MS 35.4
      Baltimore City, MD 33.8
      Newark, NJ 33.3
      Birmingham , AL 24.5
      Buffalo, NY 23.2
      Baton Rouge, LA 23.1
      Pittsburgh, PA 22.4
      North Charleston, SC 21.8
      Little Rock, AR 21.7
      Memphis, TN 21.4
      Atlanta, GA 20.5
      Cincinnati, OH 20.2
      San Bernardino, CA 20.0
      Oakland, CA 19.5
      Miami, FL 19.2
      Richmond, VA 18.9
      Dayton, OH 18.9
      Inglewood, CA 17.9
      Montgomery, AL 17.5
      South Bend, IN 16.9
      Kansas City, KS 16.8
      Kansas City, MO 16.7
      Paterson, NJ 16.4
      Stockton, CA 16.4
      Cleveland, OH 16.2
      Washington, DC 15.9
      Philadelphia, PA 15.9
      Wilmington, NC 15.9
      Indianapolis, IN 15.8
      Chattanooga, TN 15.5
      Hartford, CT 15.2
      Chicago, IL 15.1

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  56. The 2nd Amendment is NOT a "loophole" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's the guarantor of all the others.

    The founders of the nation were very explicit in their other writings: They intended all the adult males in the country to be armed with weapons equal to those of the most powerful army on Earth. This was to perform several functions [a] be a check on government, which would be afraid to oppress its own people, [b] deter any foreign army thinking it could ever invade, and [c] eliminate the justification for a permanent "standing army", which history shows is almost always eventually turned against its own people at some point by a tyrannical leader.

    They werew not concerned with the idea that civilians would go on kiling sprees murdering each other with those guns, because the American people of the time were overwhelmingly Christian (12 colonies were OFFICIALLY Protestant Christian, and one was officially Catholic). There just were no mass murders to worry about in the civilian population.

    Our founders NEVER justified the second amendment by claiming it was for hobbyists collecting guns, or skeet shooting, or hunting.

    Our founders DID understand automation. Many were inventors and entrepreneurs and some of the rifles used in the revolution were manufactured in the US using early automated processes. They also approved of citizens having CANONS (actual field/naval artillery) and explosives. Many of the rifles the American civilians had at the time of the revolution were superior to the models which were provided to their troops by the British army.

    This constant propaganda effort to de-legitimize the 2nd Amendment is an effort Goebbels (of big lie, told often, fame) would be proud of - it's completely anti-historical and shows an amazing ignorance of the Constitution and its authors.

    "I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery." - Thomas Jefferson

    "To disarm the people...[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them." - George Mason

    "I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." - George Mason

    "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adamas

    "I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." - John Adamas (on the White House)

    "Posterity![that's us] you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it." - John Adamas

  57. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think that the chicago PD is not really as stupid as accepting a truckload of brand new guns without asking some questions, Beside. This is easely fix with asking the gun owner is ID and address to send the check, then checking the guns serials for theft.

  58. Police will never by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Police will never reduce violence in a community, local authorities need to put in place policies that support families and the local community and spend their money on developing healthy communities not on policing.

  59. Re: Seems stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you'd like to say reality slapping someone in the face wouldn't it at least be prudent to supply any sort of citation? So far you're no better than the OP for providing proof of your assertion.

  60. Re: So long as we're trying such elaborate measure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, please don't assume that the stuff you read from the lower echelons of the US represent the country as a gestalt.

    I'll give a good example of what the US is really like. I live in one of the most populated cities in Texas. Other than uniformed police or security, I have yet to see a single person carrying openly since it was made legal this year. I have lived in the city all my life, and have yet to actually remember hearing a gunshot fired in anger. I've heard gunshots and plenty of them at ranges, but have never seen/heard crossfire. Hell, I've yet to even see a brass casing or a spent shotgun shell, even in the "worst" neighborhoods.

    This doesn't mean crime doesn't happen... but realistically, the police do a very good job at catching the bad guys. It isn't a lawless, Wild-West society where you are going to get mowed down by some drunk shooting a Bushmaster with a 100 round mag [1]. Americans as a whole know the difference between a German citizen and a member of the National Socialist Party, so don't assume the dumbest tier of people in the US speak/write for the entire country.

    There are areas of the US where crime is high, and it comes from history, mismanagement, and political corruption. However, there are many, many more cities in the US that are just as safe as European cities.

    The problem is that people don't report on the cities where one can wander around on a Saturday night at 2:00 AM without issue. They report on the places that are pieces of crap due to political reasons.

    [1]: Those 100 round double-drum mags are a perfect Darwin test. Realistically, if the two springs don't 100% match each other in tension, the magazine will jam... or the mag will jam just because it feels like it.

  61. Re:Seems stupid... by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

    Does anyone have the statistics on corporate and other "white collar" crime? I hypothesise that the racial (and gender!) disparity is even more marked there.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  62. Re: Seems stupid...Wtf? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously? No, you creeper, not all dudes are into that. Guessing you are not great at interacting with women your own age so you look for easier targets that you can impress. And you are probably one of those that hate all women and think they're evil. If none are into you, take the hint from natural selection, so sorry, there's something wrong with you and you shouldn't reproduce.

  63. AHAHAHAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So basically, we have empirical evidence that profiling doesn't work because bias rarely correlates with expectation.
    So we decided we'd get the software to do it for us, because software doesn't bias amirite? Also it's not profiling if a computer does it, amirite?

    File this under "inventions that promise to do my job for me but never actually do anything".

  64. Re:This is bad, still not as bad as Honan Square.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mod parent up.

    I am disgusted by the US media that they have not picked up this story. It's an absolute disgrace, both by the police and the media.

    It's all by design.

  65. Re:This is bad, still not as bad as Honan Square.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why are you surprised?
    Chicago, the home of President Obama, is controlled by Democrats.
    Chicago, along with Illinois, have been controlled by Democrats for decades.
    The Democrats #1 concern is saving public section pensions.

    Do you want the violent crime to stop in Chicago?
    Then take a play from the activist playbook; boycott Chicago
    Don't work for a tech firm in Chicago
    Don't attend conferences in Chicago
    Stay out of Chicago

    Boycott Chicago until the violence stops

    It's done for all other social agendas

  66. Slight correction needed in this article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey Slashdot, IDK how to email you directly, so...
    I think this is either false or just really misleading:

    >The U.S. will phase out private prisons...

    The only part of the US that will phase out private prisons (if I understand correctly) is the federal government, which manages only a small minority of the prisons in the country, housing only a small minority of prisoners. The bulk of prisoners are incarcerated in state-run prisons, which are still free to use private prison corporations.

  67. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by Shortguy881 · · Score: 1

    Guns have serial numbers. Selling a cop a stolen gun seems like a great way to go to jail.

    --
    Brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
  68. Re:Seems stupid... by budgenator · · Score: 1

    Percentage of total child abusers: ...

    The term "child abuser" isn't a term I usually associate with crime reporting data. A citation would be nice here; otherwise we will have to assume it's an emotional appeal form one of those "Non-profit advocacy groups" with an 85% overhead.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  69. let me understand this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your going to take a known violent individual (due to prior arrests) who probably isn't a big fan of the police and also is currently minding their own business, send the cops and social worker to talk to them about potentially committing a crime, and expect this to go well? Yeah, thats a happy day for that individual. A real community building experience "Hi, I just wanted to knock on your door, waste your time, and scare you to talk about the crime you never committed... "

    Do you want to incite people to violence? Because this is how you incite people to violence.

  70. Re:Seems stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We had this in school too. It was considered better to go into the bush to have sex than it was to just have sex in the hall, less likely to get caught...

  71. Geeeshhh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You want to reduce murder? Let everybody enforce their 2nd Amendment. Period. Look down south for instructions...

  72. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by harrkev · · Score: 1

    I find it funny how some people blame Chicago's violence problems on other cities with more lax laws. The interesting thing is how other cities with more guns generally have LESS CRIME.

    So, we have two cities: one with high crime, and one with low crime. Obviously, the solution is to take the laws of the failing city and force those on the city that is doing OK. Yeah, right. This is like taking a test and cheating off of the dumbest kid in the class. If I were running a business, I would want to take business advice from the company that is making money, not the one that is going bankrupt. However, this is exactly what people want when they say that the problem with Chicago is that their laws are not nation-wide.

    --
    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  73. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by budgenator · · Score: 1

    No the principal is if everyone is able to defend themselves, up to and including deadly force if necessary, violent criminals would be more wary of plying their trade. Years ago Miami Florida was known as the murder capital of the US, as a result Florida loosened their concealed weapons laws and crime went down considerably. It got to the point where the majority of people being robbed were people driving rental cars, the criminals knew that tourist who flew into Florida would be unarmed. Even now rental cars in Florida don't have decals of the rental company on them to protect the renters.

    The State has been allowed the prosecutorial prerogative, but that doesn't prohibit the individual's right to self-defense, and asserting the right to self-defense doesn't prohibit prosecution by the State.

    The basic problem is too many people have too little value for human life and too little respect for others. Even during the "Wild West" days, the professional gun slingers were less promiscuous with gun play.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  74. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by Calydor · · Score: 1

    You should look up gun-related deaths per capita in the US and in various European countries, then try to apply your logic again. :-)

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  75. Re:This is bad, still not as bad as Honan Square.. by budgenator · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up.

    I am disgusted by the US media that they have not picked up this story. It's an absolute disgrace, both by the police and the media.

    Well Obama's Friend and former Administration member, Rom Emanuel, is mayor so It's unlikely either He or Hillary are too anxious for a lot of press on this.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  76. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

    Didn't you notice OP's "no questions asked"?

    If the police are going to run serial numbers, that's going to convince people not to sell their guns to the cops. Which means it'll work like most "gun buy-backs" - they get a lot of crap (like a WW1-era rifle) instead of the guns they want to get (the ones the gang-bangers are using).

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  77. Re:So long as we're trying such elaborate measures by harrkev · · Score: 1

    Another example of VERY flawed logic.

    Suppose that I had a relative who was killed by a red car. I go on a crusade saying that all red cars are dangerous and get the laws changed -- red cars are now illegal. After 10 years, the number of red-car-involved deaths effectively drops to zero. So, I can now claim success and that taking red cars off of the streets has made the streets safer.

    My forcing murderers to use different tools does not make them stop being murderers.

    Other countries also have different amounts of racial diversity, different languages, different economies, different mental health care systems, and different languages. Clearly we can ignore all of those other differences and only focus on the one difference that proves your point.

    I could play the same game. In Japan there are not privately-owned guns, and they have a LOT more suicides. If Japan had more guns, their suicide rate would go down. See how that works?

    --
    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  78. Re:Seems stupid... by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    I see no evidence or stats there regarding teenage date-rape frequency.

    Let's just say you made nonsense up without any basis in fact.

  79. Get Dueterte - The world's best crime figher by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In seven weeks he has been president of the Philippines 500,000 drug users and dealers have turned themselves in. Sure 500 criminals resisted and therefore died. But he is really the best thing for crime anywhere.

  80. Chicago crime by the numbers by tom_bkpk · · Score: 1

    Before you get too involved in the algorithm's performance, it helps to get a handle on the numbers. This look at the numbers is equal parts morbid, funny and sad. http://heyjackass.com/

  81. Minor crimes? by phorm · · Score: 1

    As long as you're not including things like "jaywalking" or smaller traffic violations in those crimes unless they show a clear pattern.

    Now stopping people who are just getting into petty theft, drug crimes, petty violence etc is probably a good idea. At the same time though, giving the early offenders means and motivation to straighten their shit out before they become big offenders is probably a good idea.

    By the same token, seizing the car of some rich shit who doesn't give a f*** about those parking/speeding tickets he's been accumulating might help prevent him from killing somebody in a vehicular homicide later on, while ticketing the shit out of a poorer person isn't going to help things at all.

  82. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by dywolf · · Score: 1

    Bull.
    Chicago does not have one of the worst crime problems in the country, regardless of you idiots constantly trying to push that myth.
    Most years it not even the top 20 let alone top 10.

    Cities with higher homicide rates than Chicago in 2014
    All numbers represent homicides per 100,000 people.

    St. Louis, MO 49.9
    Detroit, MI 43.5
    New Orleans, LA 38.7
    Jackson, MS 35.4
    Baltimore City, MD 33.8
    Newark, NJ 33.3
    Birmingham , AL 24.5
    Buffalo, NY 23.2
    Baton Rouge, LA 23.1
    Pittsburgh, PA 22.4
    North Charleston, SC 21.8
    Little Rock, AR 21.7
    Memphis, TN 21.4
    Atlanta, GA 20.5
    Cincinnati, OH 20.2
    San Bernardino, CA 20.0
    Oakland, CA 19.5
    Miami, FL 19.2
    Richmond, VA 18.9
    Dayton, OH 18.9
    Inglewood, CA 17.9
    Montgomery, AL 17.5
    South Bend, IN 16.9
    Kansas City, KS 16.8
    Kansas City, MO 16.7
    Paterson, NJ 16.4
    Stockton, CA 16.4
    Cleveland, OH 16.2
    Washington, DC 15.9
    Philadelphia, PA 15.9
    Wilmington, NC 15.9
    Indianapolis, IN 15.8
    Chattanooga, TN 15.5
    Hartford, CT 15.2
    Chicago, IL 15.1

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  83. Re:perhaps a buyback program? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

    Note that I did not use the phrase "gun homicide rate" in descrbing Chicago. There's a reason for that.

    Note also that "gun homicide rate" and "crime rate" are not synonymous.

    Note, finally, that the 15.1/100K you mention is well over twice the national average....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  84. Re:Seems stupid... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

    100% of all child molesters and rapists are white men.

    Except that the majority of child molesters are actually women.

  85. Re:Seems stupid... by beastofburdon · · Score: 1

    Keep trying to twist reality to fit your warped views all you want, it won't happen.

    Says the person making claims that have never been backed by any evidence.