Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the past car thieves could reduce the probability that a stolen car would be recovered
by transporting it across a state line, but the NCIC database contains information about
stolen vehicles throughout the United States, and it has enabled law enforcement officials
to identify cars stolen anywhere in the nation.
At the present time, just over half of all stolen vehicles are recovered. If we make the
conservative estimate that the NCIC has increased the percentage of recovered cars by
just 20 percent, more than 100,000 additional cars are being returned to their owners
each year. Each recovery has several benefits. First, the car is returned to its owner, who
doesn't have to go through the hassle of settling an insurance claim and getting a new
vehicle. Second, by returning the car to its owner, the police make sure that “crime does
not pay” and may actually apprehend a criminal, which should reduce the number of
cars stolen in the future. We assign a total value of $5,000 to the benefit of returning a
single stolen car to its owner. Multiplying $5,000 by 100,000, the increase in the number
of cars attributed to the NCIC stolen vehicle database, we determine the annual positive
impact of the NCIC stolen vehicle database to be $500,000.
Now let's consider the harmful consequences of the database. If an error in the
NCIC stolen car database leads to a false arrest, the harm caused to the innocent driver
is great. However, after many years there are only a few stories of false arrests stemming
from errors in the NCIC stolen car database. Suppose there is one false arrest per year.
Based on the case of Terry Dean Rogan presented earlier, we assign a total value of
−
$55,000 to the harm caused per false arrest.
Adding up the benefits and the harms caused by the NCIC stolen vehicle database,
we determine the operation of the database results in an annual total net increase in
the happiness of the affected parties of $445,000. If the NCIC stolen vehicle database
did not exist, the benefit and the harm would both be zero, meaning there would be no
net increase in the happiness of the affected parties. Comparing these two alternatives,
we conclude the creation and maintenance of this database has been the right course of
action.
Even if the data entered into a computer are correct, the system may still produce the
wrong result or collapse entirely if there are errors in the computer programs manipu-
lating the data. Newspapers are full of stories about software bugs or “glitches.” Here is
a selection of stories that have appeared in print.
Linda Brooks of Minneapolis, Minnesota, opened her mail on July 21, 2001, and found
a phone bill for $57,346.20. A bug in Qwest's billing software caused it to charge some
customers as much as $600 per minute for the use of their cell phones. About 1.4 percent
of Qwest's customers, 14,000 in all, received incorrect bills. A Qwest spokesperson said
the bug was in a newly installed billing system [6].
