system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are American police officers allowed to "bait" people into committing crimes (ex: bait cars, sting operations)?
gpt
The police are not allowed to "bait" people into committing crimes they would not otherwise perform, such as through coercion. They *can* set traps for people who are trying to commit crimes of their own accord.

For example a plainclothes police officer standing on the corner apparently selling drugs isn't going to make anyone purchase drugs if they weren't going to buy them from a legitimate criminal. A bait car sitting on the side of the road isn't any more likely to be stolen by someone who doesn't normally steal cars.

The key point here is that the police are not making people commit those crimes when otherwise they wouldn't have, they are just influencing them to commit the crime where the police can catch them.