The Description Was Too Distinctive
Firehand brings us a tale of political correctness run amok. A burglar’s distinctive birthmark couldn’t be used to catch the perp because it would narrow the pool of suspects down to an unacceptably low number.
Just to play devil’s advocate, it could be that previous arrests were successfully challenged in court because the police engaged in some form of profiling.
September 30th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Sounds to me like a case of bureaucratic rules having the opposite affect that was intended. The original reason for requiring that the police show a minimum number of photos is to reduce the chance of mis-identification, I assume. Of course, if a suspect had some kind of very distinctive mark, this also reduces the chance of mis-identification. Its pretty unlikely that you’ll have two guys in the same area with same shape and color birthmark on their face. The guy that wrote the rule apparently never thought about the possibility that a suspect might have a distinctive enough appearance that he would be easily identified. Such is the way of much of bureaucracy.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:26 pm
[...] If I put this in a screenplay, it would be dismissed as unbelievable. (via Hell in a Handbasket) [...]