I&#x27;m not sure why that should be surprising. Perhaps it&#x27;s surprising only because it&#x27;s so unusual for academics to publish &#x27;negative results&#x27;.  I think this post shows how interesting and useful it can be to do so though, even if it&#x27;s frustrating because we want to know &#x27;the answer&#x27;.<p>My guess is it&#x27;s got something to do with police schedules, priorities, and focuses, rather than with crime distribution. Do cops need to make some kind of weekly report of what they&#x27;ve done on thursday mornings? Do they have more time to make arrests on Wednesdays? Something like that.