"}\n\nin Melbourne we got stuck in a cycle of policy changes for police chases because hot pursuits would invariably result in the fleeing car crashing into a tree and killing everyone on board or worse crashing into another car and killing a whole family, so the public outcry led to a review of police procedures which of course made it common knowledge that police would now disengage if a fleeing car accelerated wildly and drove on the wrong side of the road, leading to an increase in dangerous driving and crashes which led to public outcry and a review of police procedures etc. etc.
this is a bit of a special case as there is a feedback loop, but in general it\u2019s really difficult to stand up after a disaster and say actually we\u2019re not going to make any changes to policy because we\u2019re already at an optimal point, we cannot reduce casualties to zero, and any changes would just be window dressing in a vain attempt to believe that we can control an inherently uncontrollable situation.
now of course most policies aren\u2019t optimal and can be improved, but eventually in the absence of feedback loops you\u2019re going to end up with something that\u2019s as good as you can currently make it\u2026 and yet still not perfect, and you need a way to deal with that.
I think this is why politicians say \u201cwe\u2019re appointing a commission to study the problem\u201d.
That means \u201cwe\u2019re not going to do anything about it because we believe our current policy is already optimal, and this will take long enough for most of you to calm down and forget about it, and the only people who still care are small enough in numbers to be easily ignored\u201d.
yes, and sometimes that\u2019s reasonable!\u00a0\u201cwe have reviewed our policies and decided not to make any changes at this time\u201d can be an ass covering move but it can also be the correct move in some situations.