Critical Reasoning

170. The proposal to hire ten new police officers in Middletown is quite foolish. There is sufficient funding to pay the salaries of the new officers, but not the salaries of additional court and prison employees to process the increased caseload of arrests and convictions that new officers usually generate.

Which of the following, if true, will most seriously weaken the conclusion drawn above?

(A) Studies have shown that an increase in a city's police force does not necessarily reduce crime.

(B) When one major city increased its police force by 19 percent last year, there were 40 percent more arrests and 13 percent more convictions.

(C) If funding for the new police officers' salaries is approved, support for other city services will have to be reduced during the next fiscal year.

(D) In most United States cities, not all arrests result in convictions, and not all convictions result in prison terms.

(E) Middletown's ratio of police officers to citizens has reached a level at which an increase in the number of officers will have a deterrent effect on crime.

This question has been up on this forum before as well. I think you should ask the site managers of a way to first search if a question is already posted, and if not, then maybe we can discuss it.

However, for your sake, the answer is E!

E says that increasing the police will have a deterring effect on the crime scene so the conclusion drawn that there will not be enough money to fund additional judges etc for additional cases will be invalidated.

Hope this answers your question!

IMO - D

E looks tempting but I do not agree with it since the societal good, i.e., reduction in crime or so in not a part of the conclusion or something on which conclusion is based. The conclusion is based on the prison and court services.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/middleton-po ... html#74052

Refer this

E .

prephrase the argument: we should not hire more police personnels because this would mean more arrests and that would lead to more prisoners, more prison employees, leading to more expenditure . And we have no money with us.

Now look at option E. Hire police personnel and the crime will reduce. Less crime, less prisoners, less money spent. So hiring police is good.

Hope this helps!