Question

Hello Rabbi,
Recently I heard that in the United States there is a practice where the police enter poor and distressed neighborhoods and set up various temptations for thieves (like an open truck loaded with merchandise and the like), and the moment the thieves are tempted to steal, they catch them. I wanted to ask whether, in your opinion, this is a good policy. On the one hand, it makes it easier to catch thieves and prevents future thefts (in the sense of people pursuing money). On the other hand, it is possible that that same potential thief would not have stolen had he not been standing in front of such a temptation, and the policy itself creates a situation that increases the actual percentage of thieves in the population. In other words, there is a kind of “incitement” to theft here by the police.
Best regards,