First Blog

Many are the abuses of statistics.  That one you see almost every day is about polling.  Sample size, polling, bias, conclusions are all in the mix. A. The natural desire to use correlation as causation. (Ubiquitous) B. Unwitting bias in sampling and survey structure. (Consider polls.) C. Applying multiple statistical tests until some significance is confirmed. D. Using statistical tests with sample sizes too small. (Chi-square test for example). E. Using factor analysis while not understanding what it does. (Looks good in a paper.) F. Doing the study first and then creating the null hypotheses*. (This is statistics backward. Is it ok if everybody does it?) G. Worst of all is taking statistical significance as a form of proof. (Remember that at the 0.05 level, 5% of all significance conclusions are wrong. Combine with the thousands of studies every year.) *Personally guilty.

The Police.   There is a strong movement toward which all police officers must wear body cameras.   The claim is that not only will such cameras deter abuse and other conflagrations of the law, but will document the officer’s daily activities.   The camera will create a log of all activities of this officer, and this is becomes a part of the officer’s permanent file.    A few consequences on the pro side include Documentation of abusive actions of the officer.  Clarification of charges made by the officer or by the perpetrator. A strict adherence by the officer to written procedures. These sound like a welcome relief to the critics.   And for about 1% of all police officers, it means that the tendency to abuse must be curtailed.   This sounds good.   However, there is a con side to this. 1.        As mentioned above, the officer’s permanent file containing all encounters will reveal all mistakes made, and there will be these.   2.        The camera will make the o