I remember reading about how the TSA was very unsuccessful in catching errors, because they faced a large number of true negatives day in and day out. The alarms barely ever went off, and when they did, it was usually a false positive. The natural human tendency in that situation is to optimize / reduce energy expenditure by letting your guard down and paying less attention.
In security, "covert tests" that replicate rare events (like attempting to sneak a gun through a checkpoint) more frequently, seem to increase the chances of success in detecting real threats [0]. If only we could do the same for our legal system.
Except imagine the situation if you faced true positives every day. Working in a court made me do a 180 on my views of the criminal system. We would see the pre-sentence reports, and most of these guys had been engaged in criminal activity since late adolescence. I remember one case where a guy committed crimes in a tri-state area. He ultimately wouldn’t even be prosecuted for most of them after the feds got him.
In security, "covert tests" that replicate rare events (like attempting to sneak a gun through a checkpoint) more frequently, seem to increase the chances of success in detecting real threats [0]. If only we could do the same for our legal system.
[0]: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2013/november/nov4...