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Jared Dummitt
MCS1 Period 6
This model shows how different police strategies will impact the crime rate of a city. Left to their own devices, criminals will commit crimes against pedestrians and attempt to destroy the city's infrastructure. If police officers encounter criminals, they will attempt to arrest them.
This model includes three different techniques that may be used to fight crime: a generic strategy that employs a medium-sized police force, a strategy in which a small police force attempt to recruit civilians into the police force, and a strategy in which the police bring in the national guard for a brief period of time.
The most important factor that will influence the ability of the police to fight crime is the amount of training they recieve. The amount of training the police force recieves is proportional to the cost of fighting crime.
The criminals will wander randomly around the visual area. As they move, there is a random chance that they will commit a crime. When they do so, the civilians around them become victims, and the area they occupy becomes a bad neighborhood. Bad neighborhoods foster resentment and make people more likely to turn to crime. Two main factors influence whether or not civilians will turn to crime: the poverty level of the city, which the user controls, and the simulated factors, including the successfulness of the police, the state of the neighborhoods, and the effects of random events that the user controls.
Each different unit in the simulation has its own color:
Civlians: white-gray-black, as anger increases
Police Officers: green
Criminals: red
Recruits: orange
Victims: yellow
Good Neighborhoods: blue
Bad Neighborhoods: purple
The buttons and sliders in the interface are generally self-explanatory:
The Strategies
STANDARD STRATEGY: The SETUP button prepares the visual area; the GO button runs the simulation. The standard strategy employs a medium number of police officers who will remain in place until the criminals are all captured.
RECRUITMENT STRATEGY: The SETUP button prepares the visual area; the GO button runs the simulation. The Training strategy employs a smaller number of police officers to fight the criminals. These officers will attempt to persuade civilians they meet to join the police force. If the officers successfully recruit the civilians, they will become recruits, who are less effective then officers. When they encounter criminals, the recruits will either be killed themselves, or capture the criminals and be upgraded to standard officers. The advantage of recruits is that they cost less then officers.
NATIONAL GUARD STRATEGY: The SETUP button prepares the visual area; the GO button runs the simulation. The Surge strategy employs a small number of standard officers, as well as a large national guardsmen, to capture crimianls. The training that the user offers will determine the size of the contingent of guardsmen. After working for a few days, the national guard will be withdrawn, leaving the officers to finish off any remaining criminals.
The Random Events
RANDOM EVENTS are events that the user may initiate at will. Each one has positive and negative effects.
SCANDAL: The police force makes a mistake, be it a mistaken arrest or an unwise admission of failure. The population becomes angrier and more likely to turn to crime.
PROPAGANDA: The police force initiates a campaign to win over the hearts of the civilians. About half of the time, the campaign will be successful and the civlians will become less angry with the police.
Reclaim Neighborhoods: The police force attempts to bring law and order back to a neighborhood. Although this is only sometimes successful, when it is, the population will be very pleased.
The Variables
STARTING Criminals: Determines the number of criminals who will begin in the city.
POVERTY: Controls the amount of poverty in the city, which is directly proportional to the willingness of the civilians to become criminals.
TRAINING: Controls the ability of the officers to make successful arrests. Each increase in training level is accompanied by a proportional increase in cost.
1. Notice the effect of training on operations. Almost without exception, increased training is the key to victory.
2. Notice how different strategies work with different amounts of training. Observe that some strategies are more successful with a less-trained force.
3. Notice how important the opinions of the civilians are. Observe that an angry population is a surefire way to defeat. While there are no practical effects of a high cost, consider whether or not it would be worth it to try and reclaim neighborhoods.
4. Notice how harmful scandals are to both the controlling army and the native population.
5. Consider which strategy would leave the city safe from future attacks, based upon the number of officers who survive the campaign.
1. Try out all of the different strategies. See how changing the training level effects each strategy.
2. Test out the effects of the different random events on the civlian population, and see how this effects the overall crime rate.
Add practical effects to having high costs.
Add different types of criminals to more accurately reflect the challenges of fighting crime.
Rebellion: this model approaches a relatively similar problem in a very different way.
1. Micromind.com/stuy---various pages