Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

apnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 141 posts

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#41

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

pton_xd wrote: post #19
bko wrote: post #4

I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. For instance, find out where porch thieves like to hit. Plant a package there and park a patrol car there for a few hours and chances are you'll catch someone. Or put in a tracker. A cop can get a bike stolen in hours in the right neighborhoods in NYC. If a youtuber can park their car wit…

That doesn't pay. Pulling over a citizen with a job and citing them for speeding is a much more lucrative use of their time. Both are against the law, so they're doing their job either way. Kind of. Although as another commenter noted, I've noticed they've become strangely lax about even citing moving violations since Covid. Makes you wonder what they are even doing, then.

They realized that solving crimes pays just as well as playing candy crush, and the latter is less effort and more fun

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#42

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

bko wrote: post #4

I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. For instance, find out where porch thieves like to hit. Plant a package there and park a patrol car there for a few hours and chances are you'll catch someone. Or put in a tracker. A cop can get a bike stolen in hours in the right neighborhoods in NYC. If a youtuber can park their car wit…

I wish I understood the root cause of why places like SF and Oakland have given up on policing.

Is it an ideological thing (think Chesa Boudin & co), where keeping people accountable for antisocial behavior is considered a form of oppression from a more fortunate class? Or is it more of an issue with there being too much bureaucracy to be able to push any change to policing through? Or are the voters simply too eager to continue this existing self-own, and will vote for more restorative justice as the cost of their own quality of life?

The pattern seems to repeat across a lot of the more desirable parts of California like San Francisco and Santa Monica, and I wish I understood it better. Everybody's got their hot take.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#43

Post by tempsy »

I'm wondering how we haven't solved "securely leaving packages" at this point.

Having to coordinate with delivery drivers is difficult if you're not home, which is often the case unless you're WFH.

Seems like every front door should be designed in some way to securely leave packages by now.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#44

Post by madaxe_again »

everybodyknows wrote: post #2

> stolen out of her mailbox at the Los Alamos Post Office All the P.O. mailboxes I've ever seen have locks. What's going on? Was the thief actually a USPS employee?

Most PO Box locks can be opened and then closed without trace with a flathead screwdriver. They’re usually just cheap little insert locks held in place by a nut.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#45

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39
pton_xd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't pay. Pulling over a citizen with a job and citing them for speeding is a much more lucrative use of their time. Both are against the law, so they're doing their job either way. Kind of. Although as another commenter noted, I've noticed they've become strangely lax about even citing moving violations since Covid. Makes you wonder what they are even doing, then.

> Pulling over a citizen with a job and citing them for speeding is a much more lucrative use of their time The solution may be in segregating the police from the traffic cops. Policework is dangerous and specialised. Its officers need a lot of training and good pay. Traffic cops are basically humans trained to be cameras, inasmuchas 90% of what they do can be automated.

The US is strangely staunchly opposed to traffic cameras, whereas you barely ever see cops on the roads in many EU countries, and yet traffic tickets flow abundantly.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#46

Post by lazyasciiart »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39
pton_xd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't pay. Pulling over a citizen with a job and citing them for speeding is a much more lucrative use of their time. Both are against the law, so they're doing their job either way. Kind of. Although as another commenter noted, I've noticed they've become strangely lax about even citing moving violations since Covid. Makes you wonder what they are even doing, then.

> Pulling over a citizen with a job and citing them for speeding is a much more lucrative use of their time The solution may be in segregating the police from the traffic cops. Policework is dangerous and specialised. Its officers need a lot of training and good pay. Traffic cops are basically humans trained to be cameras, inasmuchas 90% of what they do can be automated.

Seattle thought about doing that but reactionaries framed it as defunding the police department so they elected a more conservative council who moved it back.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#47

Post by lazyasciiart »

pton_xd wrote: post #29
feedforward wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. > And it's only a handful of people engaged in this low level crime. Arrest a few. And if they have a dozen prior arrests, like many of them do, keep them in jail for a while. The USA easily has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world, and yet Americans like this say…

> Their solution to this high level of crime is yet more incarceration. True, more incarceration doesn't seem to fix anything. However less incarceration also does not fix anything (see downtown San Francisco). > Finland and Norway have a much lower rate of incarceration Finland and Norway are effectively monocultures. They don't have the same social issues we do. Look at any 1st world monoculture and you see the sam…

Ok, now look at literally every country in the world and explain it.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#48

Post by JumpCrisscross »

feedforward wrote: post #23
bko wrote: post #4

I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. For instance, find out where porch thieves like to hit. Plant a package there and park a patrol car there for a few hours and chances are you'll catch someone. Or put in a tracker. A cop can get a bike stolen in hours in the right neighborhoods in NYC. If a youtuber can park their car wit…

> I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. > And it's only a handful of people engaged in this low level crime. Arrest a few. And if they have a dozen prior arrests, like many of them do, keep them in jail for a while. The USA easily has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world, and yet Americans like this say…

> USA easily has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world

A fifth of our prisoners are there for drug crimes [1]. We also have more pretrial detention and longer sentencing than the rest of the world.

I can't find good data for arrest (versus incarceration) rates. But I'd suspect we're closer to the median in frequency of arrest. In other words, our problem isn't arresting too many people; it's holding them in jail for too long. (Also arresting people for non-violent drug possession, which is stupid.)

[1] https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#49

Post by closeparen »

feedforward wrote: post #23
bko wrote: post #4

I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. For instance, find out where porch thieves like to hit. Plant a package there and park a patrol car there for a few hours and chances are you'll catch someone. Or put in a tracker. A cop can get a bike stolen in hours in the right neighborhoods in NYC. If a youtuber can park their car wit…

> I've come to believe that acceptance of crime is a choice by officials. Many low level crimes I've witnessed are trivial to catch. > And it's only a handful of people engaged in this low level crime. Arrest a few. And if they have a dozen prior arrests, like many of them do, keep them in jail for a while. The USA easily has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world, and yet Americans like this say…

You can't just abdicate the monopoly on violence because you feel you've done enough policing this year, any more than you can stop pumping water when you feel like people have used enough, or stop processing sewage and collecting trash when you feel like people have produced enough waste. That doesn't preclude working on root causes of crime or water conservation or reducing waste. But government has to deal with the population-level behavior that it actually has - all of it, not the amount it wishes it had - or we are fundamentally not living in civilization anymore. Water stops coming out of the taps, trash piles up in the streets, and people do crimes with impunity. The Northern European societies people lionize in these types of discussions are certainly not like that.

Re: Californian fed up with stolen mail sends Apple AirTag to herself to catch thief

#50

Post by toast0 »

NorthTheRock wrote: post #28
marcusverus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see how this would be the natural response to a situation where the DA refuses to prosecute crime. That said, simply giving in to lawlessness is clearly not the answer, and I doubt many cops find this to be a preferable path. It just validates the DA's backwards worldview! How are you going to replace them when the elections roll around, and they're able to argue "I'm not refusing to prosecute anyone! Just look…

> DA refuses to prosecute crime Have there been any actual documented instances of this? I see it cited a lot, but rarely any specific names of DAs or cases attached to it, and it feels like an easy excuse for police to not even attempt to do their jobs.

Even without a specific policy to not prosecute crimes, there's a pipeline problem.

Courts are backed up and jails are full. DAs have to prioritize cases so that important cases are prosecuted within the statutes of limitations and constitutional speedy trial limits. Arresting people under suspicion of crimes that are unlikely to be prosecuted isn't very effective and nobody likes doing ineffective work.

Post reply on HN