WA Police planting e-scooters as bait at shopping centres to catch thieves
WA Police planting e-scooters as bait at shopping centres to catch thieves
www.abc.net.au
A thief stole a scooter at a shopping centre. It was put there by police as bait
21 comments
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Dr Monterosso said it was difficult to find statistics to show whether this method of proactive policing reduced crime.
In order for it to be plausible that it would reduce crime the police would need to be open about the fact that they are using this tactic. The only reason more than a handful of people actually know about this is the sound journalism by Mya Kordic
It may be legal but it is thoroughly immoral and one suspects if it was a white kid with wealthy parents it would've been chucked out.
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How is it immoral?
I loathe the fact that to go to my local shops I have to drive my fucking car because there is a high chance that some fuckwit will steal my bike or scooter if I lock it at the entrance.
Fuck people who steal bikes and scooters. All they are doing is grabbing on to people barely one rung up the societal ladder than they are and pulling them down.
Go steal from a large corporation instead if you want sympathy.
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There are ways of doing this without entrapment. If they want to catch bike and scooter thieves they can stake out the bike racks. I suspect no sane person leaves their bike unlocked there so they have to contrive an artificial situation to entice someone to commit a crime. How is this valuable policing? Had the police not bought a scooter and left it unlocked no crime would've been committed.
I have no illusions that the young fellow in question is an upstanding citizen but how is public interest served here? One kid gets a fine and arguably may hesitate before doing the same thing again but the problem is not this one kid, it is systemic and were it not for this news article no-one would even know about it meaning it is useless even for deterrence.
It is a waste of everyone's time, drags a kid who likely already has a shit life through the courts further alienating him, and did not even protect the property of a real person.
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In Singas, some people don't even bother locking their bikes. Others will just slip a chain with a combination lock through the back wheel. Almost none of them get filched. They'd be gone very quickly in Perth.
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A $250 fine and a stern talking to basically is being chucked out.
Nobody enticed the dude to commit a crime. He's a big boy who made that decision all by himself. Simply being in position to catch people who made that choice is not entrapment.
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@HalfEarthMedic it would be interesting to know if the police pull this shit in the Western Suburbs. I doubt it.
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@Longmactoppedup I know that shopping centre. And it can be a bit of an adventure/stabby.
But knowingly taking something that's not yours is immoral.-
Especially something the rich would rarely use. Steal helicopters and fancy cars, that's what real g's would steal
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*centers. Not centrees or centrays.
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The eshays hang out in the centrays, untcay.
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I'll take for granted your error was in good faith. Words are written differently outside of the USA. If this was written in America, it would use the American spelling "center", however it was written in Australia, which uses the British spelling "centre".
If you're interested, the spelling is derived from Middle French "centre", which became part of English post Norman conquest. However, in the early 19c the American lexicographer, Noah Webster simplified many words to be more phonetical and these were adopted by the US. Most of the Commonwealth countries will still use the British spellings.
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Oh wow, i didn't know the Noah Webster bit, thats really interesting!
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21 comments
The old trick or reducing crime by increasing it.