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Re:How Palantir Is Taking Over New York City by pc86 on Friday September 23, 2016 @01:06PM (#12566159)
It seems like you're making an argument that crime statistics should not be used as a metric to focus law enforcement efforts.

What other metrics should we use? If you simply assign patrol routes based on population you are going to under-serve areas with higher crime and over-police areas that don't need it.

Re:How Palantir Is Taking Over New York City by dangerlibrary on Friday September 23, 2016 @01:15PM (#12566245)
I'm arguing that it's a more complicated statistical problem than "we see more criminal 'events' in this neighborhood, so we should send more cops there."
Re:How Palantir Is Taking Over New York City by searine on Friday September 23, 2016 @01:55PM (#12566605)
Offering criticism without offering an alternative isn't helpful.

Of course it's complicated, and of course crime stats are a simplification. Most stats are. The point is, stats are much better than going by biased "gut feelings".

Yes there are underlying issues with stats such as underreporting, but the solution isn't to get rid of the stats. It's to improve the underlying cause of the bias in the data, such as improving police/public relations.

Re:How Palantir Is Taking Over New York City by dangerlibrary on Friday September 23, 2016 @02:14PM (#12566743)
Your conclusion and the one I implied in my comment are not mutually exclusive.

My solution, implied in my comment, was not to use naive statistical models or ideas (i.e. 75% of "crime").

Re:How Palantir Is Taking Over New York City by searine on Friday September 23, 2016 @04:04PM (#12567542)
An "implied" solution isn't a solution because it was never suggested.

And your now stated solution is easier said than done, and certainly not immune to the same kind of biases a naive solution may be subject to.