[tsegers]

Using basic statistical methods to determine effective policies can result in policies that a lot of people would consider unfair and unethical.

[bko]

Can you elaborate?

For instance, I lived in an area where there was a lot of bike thefts. Everyone knew it and police got a lot of bike theft reports (it was in the statistics). I would like to see more police enforcement to deter bike thefts. I think its unethical to ignore the needs of a neighborhood when allocating police resources.

[randomswede]

But if you then over-intensify the bike theft enforcement in that area, you will continue to have an over-reporting of bike thefts in that area, leading to more intense bike theft enforcement, eventually leading to an unjust and unethical police presence across the municipality.