Blame it on the Moon

According to an article on the BBC website:

Extra police officers are to patrol the streets of Brighton on nights when there is a full moon.

This is going to happen after

Insp Andy Parr ... compared crime statistics for Brighton and Hove with lunar graphs to discover the trend.

and, apparently, he thinks he's found one.

It'd be interesting to see what he actually found, especially given that there seems to be a lack of evidence of any real correlation.

From my point of view it's tempting to imagine that more people will hit the streets when the Moon is full thanks to the extra light. And, of course, more people, especially if it's more people with a few drinks inside them, could cause an increase in incidents. But, if that's the case, wouldn't it make more sense to increase policing during many of the weeks around the summer solstice when, in most of the UK anyway, it never really gets that dark anyway?

I do like this bit though (emphasis is mine):

It follows research by the Sussex force which concluded there was a rise in violent incidents when the moon was full - and also on paydays.