On Tue, 04 May 2010 07:42:19 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> On Mon, 03 May 2010 22:54:20 +0200, andrel wrote:
> 
>> > I guess Warp's problem is that not only the police is 'punished' but
>> > the society as a whole even more.
> 
>> That provides the police with incentive to follow the rules.
> 
>   But at what cost? They know that the person is a criminal who has
>   harmed
> or will harm other people (or both), yet they let him go because of a
> technicality. It's the policeman who should be punished for breaking the
> law, not innocent bystanders who may be harmed by the criminal who was
> let go on purpose...

The cost is the greater good ultimately.  If police are required to 
follow the rules or else someone guilty gets let off, then they're 
incented to play by the rules.

But you'd probably rather see innocent people locked up because of a 
police procedure error, wouldn't you?  At least then the cops will have 
locked *someone* up for the crime.  If there even was one.

Jim

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