Board on the Beat

Police in Serravalle, Italy, have a new weapon against crime: wooden policemen. Mayor Gianluca Buonanno got the idea at a play, which featured a wooden replica of himself as a prop. “Between the first and the second act, I swapped places with the dummy and for a few seconds nobody noticed,” the mayor said. He hopes putting up decoy police officers will slow down speeders. (Reuters) ...We tried putting a wooden vice president in the White House, but it sure didn’t reduce crime there.