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Originally Posted by obviously
Xaccers , I hate to point this out - especially when Andyl chose not to - but you ignored his point about the economic comparison. We can't simply compare salaries to one-off install costs,
Obviously the salary is a recurring charge and the salary is only part of the cost of employing someone (not sure what figures the police use but one of the companys that I've worked with used a +80% figure on salaries to include additional costs like training/admin/etcetera). Similarly the Gatsos would have running costs (simply mailing someone to inform them that they've been 'caught' costs money) hence the comparison would/should be moderately complex.
This ties back into andyl's point, I think, in that someone seeking election could go for a populist, emotional comparison (1 Gatso = 2 police on the beat) which might get them elected but would not necessarily be accurate or achievable
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My point is that for the money you get a heck of a lot more with an aditional policeman than you do with a gatso, after all, when was the last time a gatso caught anyone doing anything other than driving over the limit?
As for popularist policies, surely the police should be tackling things which actually affect the comunity rather than concentrating on things which get them the most money for least effort or matters which the community don't care about.
For instance, if the police tackled the most common crime, and that turned out to be littering but most people were affected by burglaries.
Which would you prefer they went for?
Tackling the most common crime, or tackling something popularist which actually affects people's quality of life?