The Parable of the Head of Security

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, what crimes is Stop and Frisk stopping, and at what social cost?”

Josh spoke thus:

There was a store owner who was concerned with theft.

“Search all the employees,” the owner told the head of security, “Search them when they come into the store.  Inventory their pockets.  Search them when they leave the store.  Inventory their pockets.  I want to see a written record of the contents of everybody’s pockets on my desk after everybody leaves at the end of the day.”

The owner of the store went into the security office and inspected the security cameras.  There were cameras watching every entrance and every exit.  There were cameras watching every cash register.  There were cameras in the restrooms, and there were cameras in the storerooms.  I cockroach could not walk from one end of the store to the other without being seen on camera.

The head of security had the security personnel search each employee as each employee entered the store at the beginning of the day.  The security personnel made records of every item in every employee’s pockets.

The head of security had the security personnel search each employee as each employee left the store at the end of the day.  The security personnel made records of every item in every employee’s pockets.

The cameras watched the employees every day.  The security guards inventoried the employees every day.  Customers were watched as the entered.  Customers were watched as they shopped.  Customers were watched as they made their purchases.  Customers were watched as they left.

The inventory coming in was recorded and re-recorded and re-re-recorded.  The inventory at night was recorded and re-recorded and re-re-recorded.

Nothing went in the store that wasn’t seen.  Nothing left the store that wasn’t seen.

And yet the accounts at the end of the year were unbalanced.  The owner of the store was baffled.

“How can that be?” the owner of the store asked the head of security, “We watched every employee on the floor.  We watched every customer.  We counted every item in the inventory three times.  What got stolen?”

“I suggest we hire more guards, buy more cameras, and watch more customers and salespeople more closely,” the head of security said.

“I agree,” the store owner said, and the store owner made a note to hire more guards, buy more cameras and watch more  customers and salespeople more closely.  “We’ll start on Monday.”

The store owner and the head of security walked to the parking lot together.  The head of security’s spouse, the head of accounting, waved to the store owner from the driver’s seat of the head of security’s car.

“What an excellent head of security my head of security is,” the owner of the store said to no one, “I must look into raising the head of security’s salary.  And I must find out how the head of security got such a good deal on that BMW.”