[arjie]

Ultimately, there’s a sort of homeostasis in people’s tolerance for crime. If you need video evidence for prosecution, those who want it prosecuted will produce video cameras. If you make warrants impossible to produce in a timely manner, the camera search will be warrant exempted.

Attempts to damage state power to ensure crime isn’t prosecuted will be likely met with methods that are immune to them.

Given the constraints we operate under, the ideal number of unsolved crimes is not zero and the ideal number of crimes committed using state apparatus is also not zero. So being informed that either is non-zero is not of use to decision making in my opinion.

[pinkmuffinere]

> the ideal number of unsolved crimes is not zero and the ideal number of crimes committed using state apparatus is also not zero

I feel this is an _extremely_ good point, the kind that seems obvious only once you hear it. But i feel there’s an implication that could be made explicit here — we should be looking at the distribution of both apparatus-enabled-crimes and unsolved-crimes when we’re discussing this sort of thing. And if those metrics aren’t tabulated for easy access, they probably should be.

[arjie]

> And if those metrics aren’t tabulated for easy access, they probably should be.

I couldn't agree more. They're two different error rates for our society and measuring them accurately would help us go to where we should be on the curve.

[lazyasciiart]

And if you need confessions, confessions will be made.

[arjie]

Precisely! Illustrates the problem perfectly.