Budget constraints have made police officials consider reassigning a considerable number of officers from traffic enforcement to work on higher-priority, serious crimes. Reducing traffic enforcement for this reason would be counterproductive, however, in light of the tendency of criminals to use cars when engaged in the commission of serious crimes. An officer stopping a car for a traffic violation can make a search that turns up evidence of serious crime. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument given? (A) An officer who stops a car containing evidence of the commission of a serious crime risks a violent confrontation, even if the vehicle was stopped only for a traffic violation. (B) When the public becomes aware that traffic enforcement has lessened, it typically becomes lax in obeying traffic rules. (C) Those willing to break the law to commit serious crimes are often in committing such crimes unwilling to observe what they regard as the lesser constraints of traffic law. (D) The offenders committing serious crimes who would be caught because of traffic violations are not the same group of individuals as those who would be caught if the arresting officers were reassigned from traffic enforcement. (E) The great majority of persons who are stopped by officers for traffic violations are not guilty of any serious crimes. ID: 500304 Argument Construction Situation Budget constraints have made police officials consider reassigning many officers from traffic enforcement to work on serious crimes. But criminals often drive when committing serious crimes, and police who stop cars for traffic violations can find evidence of those crimes. Reasoning What additional information, when combined with the argument provided, would suggest that it would be counterproductive to reassign officers from traffic enforcement to work on serious crimes? The argument implicitly reasons that because officers working on traffic enforcement can turn up evidence of serious crimes by searching cars that commit traffic violations, reassigning those officers would hinder police efforts to prevent serious crime, even if the officers were reassigned to work directly on serious crime. The argument could be strengthened by information suggesting that traffic enforcement may increase the probability that evidence relating to serious crimes will be discovered. (C) Correct. This suggests that people committing serious crimes often commit traffic violations as well, increasing the likelihood that traffic enforcement officers will stop and search their cars and find evidence of those crimes.

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Budget constraints have made police officials consider reassigning a

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zoezhuyan

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22 Aug 2024, 05:30

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hi MartyMurray , KarishmaB

would you guys please elaborate where my reasoning is wrong?

Quote:

B: When the public becomes aware that traffic enforcement has lessened, it typically becomes lax in obeying traffic rules.

after rearranging , public becomes lax in obeying traffic rules, then it gets more difficult to catch criminals if they using car after committing serious crimes. so B does not encourage the rearrange.

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D: The offenders committing serious crimes who would be caught because of traffic violations are not the same group of individuals as those who would be caught if the arresting officers were reassigned from traffic enforcement.

D says the officers catch a group who are not committing serious crime if rearrange. IMO, D also does not encourage rearrange.

I am not sure where is problem.

appreciate your help

have a nice day.

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22 Aug 2024, 07:06

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zoezhuyan

hi MartyMurray , KarishmaB

would you guys please elaborate where my reasoning is wrong?

Quote:

B: When the public becomes aware that traffic enforcement has lessened, it typically becomes lax in obeying traffic rules.

It's true that, if people in general become lax in obeying traffic rules, it becomes less likely that criminals breaking traffic rules will be caught because officers will be dealing with a greater number of people breaking traffic rules.

So, to deal with this choice, we have to make a call regarding whether the writer of the question considered it a strengthener.

I think the call is to decide that the writer did not consider this choice a strengthener since this choice seems to be focused on an increase in traffic violations, which is only indirectly and unclearly related to the likelihood that officers will catch individuals committing serious crimes.

So, while if we consider this choice carefully, it does in a way strengthen the argument slightly, we can choose (C) instead because (C) more clearly strengthens the argument.

Quote:

D says the officers catch a group who are not committing serious crime if rearrange. IMO, D also does not encourage rearrange.

Actually, what (D) means is that different people committing serious crimes would be caught if officers were reassigned.

After all, the point of the reassign is to have more officers working on "higher-priority, serious crimes."

So, either way, officers would be catching people committing serious crimes.

Thus, (D) has no clear effect on the argument since the fact that officers would be catching different individuals committing serious does not mean that they would be catching more or fewer of them.

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Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

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