Great question. There actually isn't an explicit conclusion in this stimulus. We're given an opinion of what many people think, followed by a premise about recent statistics that refutes the belief that many people have.
The statistics are used to demonstrate that the beliefs held by many people are false. Although the conclusion is not contained within the words of the stimulus, we can infer that the main point of the argument is that the original beliefs are false.
Does that make sense? Let us know what you think!
theprince5March 1, 2020
The way I understand it:
Conclusion (Inferred ):
Increasing the number of police officers IS NOT the only way to remedy the problem of crime.
Premise:
recent statistics show that many major cities had similar ratios of police officers to citizens, yet diverged widely in their crime rates.
