If you want to know why they don’t use the word “suspect,” look up Richard Jewell.
I prefer the British locution: “He is assisting the police in their inquiries.”
You sure are a touchy lot. I can think of one particular case where the media stressed that the person of interest was not a suspect. The police couldn’t ID the person on the video or recording or whatever, so they released the details saying they wanted to talk to the person of interest, who was most likely simply an unwitting witness.
For every person who is a suspect, there are going to be at least several persons of interests, who are not believed to have been directly involved in the commission of a crime but may have useful information.
And declaring a person to be simply a “person of interest” can be sufficient cause to detain the person and hold him in custody for as long as the police think they need him, if they fear (for whatever reason) that he may flee.
(ETA: Or am I thinking of “material witness”?)
Very similar to post #6, perhaps?
In fairness to **RealityChuck **though, you have to admit that for awhile there back in '96 Mr. Jewell was the most interested-in man in the world. A guy like that deserves double-billing.
+1
My grandfather got arrested (for 12 hours before his alibis and witnesses convinced a judge that this wasn’t whom they were looking for) by the FBI on a case of mistaken identity (he really looked exactly like the mugshot) and although he found it amusing, it even affected his position at the church (asked not to be a money counter) and at the Knights of Columbus (never a position or commission again). He was never even a person of interest or a suspect but any association with a crime has a negative effect on your life.
Very true, which is why the smiley.
Doreen nailed it.
IANAL - But it seems to me “person of interest”, “suspect”, etc. are simply terms that law enforcement use with the public and have no legal standing. Whether you can detain a person still boils down to probable cause, with all the legal nuances involved. Just because someone’s husband shot several hundred people does not mean you can hold them, or compel them to answer questions, absent actual evidence that would reasonably allow the police to infer there are grounds to believe the they committed a crime. But, if someone’s husband did shoot a few hundred people and commit suicide, certainly interviewing the wife or girlfriend(s) about his recent behaviour would be high on the agenda for the police.
This was the first thing that came to my mind. “Person of interest” is much, much broader than “suspect”. Just someone that the police want to check out for a variety of reasons: maybe involved, maybe knows something, etc. A very “maybe” situation. So a weaker phrase is needed.
There used to be a category called material witness. Perhaps this has replaced it. Sometimes it was used for a possible suspect.