In article , "Ed Huntress" wrote:


In Texas, as in most of the country, only 13% of burglaries are ever solved
("cleared"). That gives you some pretty questionable stats, if you're trying
to figure out how many burglars were involved.

From FBI stats of a couple of years ago, the number of burglaries cleared in
Dallas is somewhere around 3,990. The number of burglary arrests is just
under 1,700. So looking at it the way you suggest, you get about 2.4
burglaries cleared per arrest made. Projecting to Dallas's total number of
burglaries (a little over 23,000), it would mean you have around 9,600
burglars.

The actual number of burglars, therefore, must fall somewhere between 1,700
and 9,600. Let's be generous and say that the 1,700 arrested committed all
of the burglaries (I guess that would also mean you have no more burglaries,
'cause all the burglars have been arrested g). If that unlikely event were
true, the two burglars killed represent 0.001 of the burglars in Dallas. If
the 9,600 is closer to the actual number, they represent 0.0002 of the
burglars in Dallas. If you can notice *either* of those differences, you
have very good detectors indeed.

The moral of the story is, there's no way to wiggle out of the fact that
your two dead burglars aren't going to help your crime situation. While we
were talking 3 more probably took up burglary for a career.


Still two fewer than there would have been. That's a good thing in my book.
Maybe you don't care -- you're in a safe place, so to hell with everyone else,
eh?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.