alt Hacker News> A 99.852% ineffective rate means city leaders will spend $2,009,521.50 on license plate reader technology that does not help any case."
That's not at all what it means. The cost of the system is almost independent of the usage rate of the system. The proper math is that they spent $5,575 per case advanced. Is that a reasonable cost?
Your math doesn't include the hourly wages of the people who do the searches multiple by the time spent on them. Granted, I don't have that info, but I'm guessing it's not peanuts.