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ObiWomKenobi
One of the ways of preventing the problem is the sharing of videos of aggressive policing. You might recall that the police said they would not pursue kids on mopeds a few years ago? This was followed by a sharp rise in such crimes.
Also see the deterrent effect of the close pass initiative. The media surrounding it in West Midlands was out of all proportion to the number of times they actually did it.
But yes, I agree it is not the best way of dealing with it, it is cheap and relatively effective and overall good for police public relations with the hang em and flog em brigade.
Much better to give the kids doing it meaningful lives; work, education, role models and stuff, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Also the helicopter thing, you won't know the helicopter is following you while you're racing around on a moped. They are a distance away, and surprisingly discrete, even though everyone else can see them, they are watching and recording with some powerful optics. Trouble is the time taken to get them in place, and the cost.