Nemesis' SUMMER CHALLENGE

Credentials and all that jazz aside I feel Nemesis makes a good point.

When crime-fighters head out to "fight crime" and find none the mission is a failure. A lot of individuals here champion for the "effectiveness" of crime-detterence and how the fact that they found no crime means the're doing their "job" but the truth is this is a sad lie.

Crime happens regardless. Crime happens everywhere. Whether or not you saw anything means little because crime still happened. I'm not saying don't go out there and walk around and all that. I'm just saying don't lie to yourselves. You may come across a random accident and help someone and that's great, good for you and the person you're helping. The problem is that all that time spent wandering aimlessly can and should be used more effectively.

My two cents.

@ John Doe - So if you actually stop a crime in one location but another crime occurs at the same time does that mean you are a failure also? Do you have to actually have MORE crimes stopped than occurred elsewhere? Is it an all-or-nothing deal?

And what exactly constitutes "stopping" a crime? Does there have to be an arrest? A conviction? Or is it simply enough that the crime is prevented from happening?

And many members of this community patrol not for the purpose of fighting crime but for the purpose of protecting the innocent...Does it count if they walked a person to their apartment and nobody tried to assault that person or do they need to wait until someone actually threatens them to intervene?

If someone goes out with the purpose of preventing any crime from happening in the area they are patrolling and no crimes happen in the area they are patrolling is that an indicator that they were successful in their mission or not? I think that if they are choosing to patrol in an area where crime is a possibility then it is a very good possibility that their presence did affect the crime rate.

The reason so many people do this is not to try and achieve some impossible goal of making their city crime free. They do it to help others...and if that means changing a flat tire, helping someone thats injured themselves in a fall, or walking a scared waitress to her car then they have suceeded in helping others just as much as if they actually stopped a criminal and sent him to jail.

If you're busy protecting those not currently in danger, you are missing out on protecting those who currently are.

Thanks for the free pass, I'm going to take a little time and work up something real good for my one post.

Crossfire the Crusader wrote:

I think that if they are choosing to patrol in an area where crime is a possibility then it is a very good possibility that their presence did affect the crime rate.

Nemesis wrote:

If you're busy protecting those not currently in danger, you are missing out on protecting those who currently are.

Sounds to me like we agree on that fact.

@ Crossfire - Very well said.

@ Nemesis - I very much look forward to your presentation.

Crossfire: Well put, actually. I'm aware that no city will ever be crime-free because crime-fighting either on the side of law enforcement or citizens is basically just treating the symptoms of a disease and not the actual causes.

I'm not against helping people, that would be too contradictory. I take pleasure in helping others to the best of my ability and these sort of actions should be held in high regard wherever they are found.

I'm just saying that if a crime-fighter who's specifically trying to physically stop a crime, such as a mugging or rape/braking and entering etc, is walking around on patrol with nothing to go on except a few dots on a crime map, an immense amount of their time will be spent just wandering around. Eventually they are bound to bump into something suspicious but the odds will be stacked against them. I'm sure there are methods which could, idk, raise the likelihood of finding the aforementioned physical crime.

I've heard of some advanced algorithms some law enforcement use to try to accurately predict areas where crime is very likely to happen. Insider info on possible criminals and the things they tend to target could help. There's also the action of baiting but personally I've always felt it's just too, dishonest.

A detective like approach to finding crime without the red tape that can slow down law enforcement actions could possibly be more effective at stopping criminals than semi-random patrols. Thanatos claims to have had a direct hand in closing down meth labs and other things of that nature, so I suppose things like this are already allegedly taking place.