History Main / SuspectIsHatless

* Even those in the moment are guilty of this, despite oftentimes ''still being able to see the suspect''; a very common problem in the 9-1-1 field is the fact that callers would give what they ''think'' is a good description, but miss out in crucial details which end up being too ambiguous to follow through on. Let's say you get mugged by a Caucasian male wearing dark clothing with a dark cap, holding a knife, and whom jumped into a black SUV and sped off. With the assumption that you didn't see anything ''immediately'' identifying, such as tattoos, notable facial features or scars, or any specific markings or writing on his clothing, let's go over the facts: A white male in a dark SUV is nothing uncommon in the modern world. A hat can be removed, and a knife can be discarded or hidden. Now? You don't have much to go on. This is why it is ''crucial'' to get things that you ''know'' can point to a specific person, such as unique facial features, hair color and style, scars, tattoos, pretty much ''anything'' that stands out to differ your suspect from Joe Average down the street out for his nightly drive. That being said, such a description as the above is still useful, especially if there's already a cop in the area who might be close enough to see the suspect fleeing--as generic as it is, chances are, a white male in a black SUV wearing dark clothing, ''actively fleeing'' from the scene of a crime has a pretty good chance of being the guy they're looking for.

* Convicted Mob enforcer Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran cited a very good reason why witnesses may give this kind of description, even if a perpetrator is someone they know and recognize; the witnesses know what can happen to someone who gives an accurate description to the police.

* The Hustler, Vanderbilt University's parody newspaper, mocked the description of a criminal as the totally unhelpful "six foot tall black man" by writing an article about the six foot tall black man's long reign of terror, ascribing ''every'' crime committed in Nashville since the 1970s to the ''same'' six foot tall black man described in police reports.

* At one point in ''[[https://www.tthfanfic.org/story.php?no=10229&rewrite=true Father Goose and the Black Knight]]'', Detectives Finn and Munch wonder if [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander]] is invoking this by wearing an eye patch and face doodles. Anyone trying to describe him would focus on those two aspects which are easily removed. In reality, Xander is unrelated to the crime they're investigating and while the eye patch is real, the doodling is because he fell asleep on the bus with a group of teenagers.

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0602.html strip 602]], Haley tries to describe Durkon to a cleric. She has difficulty distinguishing him from [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame most other dwarves]].

* Even those in the moment are guilty of this, despite oftentimes ''still being able to see the suspect''; a very common problem in the 9-1-1 field is the fact that callers would give what they ''think'' is a good description, but miss out in crucial details which end up being too ambiguous to follow through on. Let's say you get mugged by a Caucasian male wearing dark clothing with a dark cap, holding a knife, and whom jumped into a black SUV and sped off. With the assumption that you didn't see anything ''immediately'' identifying, such as tattoos, notable facial features or scars, or any specific markings or writing on hos clothing, let's go over the facts: A white male in a dark SUV is nothing uncommon in the modern world. A hat can be removed, and a knife can be discarded or hidden. Now? You don't have much to go on. This is why it is ''crucial'' to get things that you ''know'' can point to a specific person, such as unique facial features, hair color and style, scars, tattoos, pretty much ''anything'' that stands out to differ your suspect from Joe Average down the street out for his nightly drive. That being said, such a description as the above is still useful, especially if there's already a cop in the area who might be close enough to see the suspect fleeing--as generic as it is, chances are, a white male in a black SUV wearing dark clothing, ''actively fleeing'' from the scene of a crime has a pretty good chance of being the guy they're looking for.

* Even those in the moment are guilty of this, despite oftentimes ''still being able to see the suspect''; a very common problem in the 9-1-1 field is the fact that callers would give what they ''think'' is a good description, but miss out in crucial details which end up being too ambiguous to follow through on. Let's say you get mugged by a Caucasian male wearing dark clothing with a dark cap, holding a knife, and whom jumped into a black SUV and sped off. With the assumption that you didn't see anything ''immediately'' identifying, such as tattoos or notable facial scars, let's go over the facts: A white male in a dark SUV is nothing uncommon in the modern world. A hat can be removed, and a knife can be discarded or hidden. Now? You don't have much to go on. This is why it is ''crucial'' to get things that you ''know'' can point to a specific person, such as unique facial features, hair color and style, scars, tattoos, pretty much ''anything'' that stands out to differ your suspect from Joe Average down the street out for his nightly drive. That being said, such a description as the above is still useful, especially if there's already a cop in the area who might be close enough to see the suspect fleeing--as generic as it is, chances are, a white male in a black SUV wearing dark clothing, ''actively fleeing'' from the scene of a crime has a pretty good chance of being the guy they're looking for.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'': The dying king describes Rothbart's transformed form (which is a gigantic bat-man hybrid) who attacked him and took Odette, as "a great animal" that "is not what it seems". This (and Derek's discovery that the king meant a ''transforming'' "animal") doesn't really helps them in determining which animal to start looking for and as such [[HilarityEnsues leads to hilarity]] (comic sidekick Bromley trying unsuccessfully to attack various small animals) and drama (Derek trying to kill the transformed Odette, because an animal that "is not what it seems" obviously could disguise itself into something like a swan...).

* A police officer in a Creator/DiscoveryChannel interview once pointed out that even if the information given by psychics were true, it is never the kind of information that is helpful. They usually say things such as a missing person has "left the city." That isn't useful, without some idea where the person has gone. They may say a murder victim was killed by someone who was very angry but the anger was misdirected, or they spend a lot of time claiming to have connected with missing person's emotional state, and say "She is scared, but she knows you are looking for her." That may provide comfort to the family of a missing person, but also provides no end of grief to investigators who need more specific information to narrow down a search area. Not to mention that ''all'' of the above comments can pretty much be extrapolated through simple ''common sense''. "Left the city"? Unless they intend to turn themselves in, are planning a spree, or are just downright ''insane'', chances are they're going to find somewhere outside of the locale to avoid heat for a while. "Killed by someone who is angry/had misdirected anger"? Uh...yeah. Barring serial cases, most murders are committed during the heat of the moment, oftentimes when an argument or confrontation goes wrong, and isn't exactly something a detective worth their salt won't figure out within the first few moments of checking a crime scene. As for the last one, as mentioned above, this is more for the benefit of the missing person's family, than anything really useful for investigators since whether the person in question ''knows'' they're being looked for doesn't really have much to do with ''where'' the person even is.

* A police officer in a Creator/DiscoveryChannel interview once pointed out that even if the information given by psychics were true, it is never the kind of information that is helpful. They usually say things such as a missing person has "left the city." That isn't useful, without some idea where the person has gone. They may say a murder victim was killed by someone who was very angry but the anger was misdirected, or they spend a lot of time claiming to have connected with missing person's emotional state, and say "She is scared, but she knows you are looking for her." That may provide comfort to the family of a missing person, but also provides no end of grief to investigators who need more specific information to narrow down a search area.

* Even those in the moment are guilty of this, despite oftentimes ''still being able to see the suspect''; a very common problem in the 9-1-1 field is the fact that callers would give what they ''think'' is a good description, but miss out in crucial details which end up being too ambiguous to follow through on. Let's say you get mugged by a Caucasian male wearing dark clothing, dark cap, holding a knife, who jumped into a black SUV and sped off. With the assumption that you didn't see anything ''immediately'' identifying, such as tattoos or notable facial scars, let's go over the facts: A white male in a dark SUV is nothing uncommon in the modern world. A hat can be removed, and a knife can be discarded or hidden. Now? You don't have much to go on. This is why it is ''crucial'' to get things that you ''know'' can point to a specific person, such as unique facial features, hair color and style, scars, tattoos, pretty much ''anything'' that stands out to differ your suspect from Joe Average down the street out for his nightly drive. That being said, such a description as the above is still useful, especially if there's already a cop in the area who might be close enough to see the suspect fleeing--as generic as it is, chances are, a white male in a black SUV wearing dark clothing, ''actively fleeing'' from the scene of a crime has a pretty good chance of being the guy they're looking for.

Basically, a witness gives a vague and more or less useless description, with the only definite clues being ultimately irrelevant (or at least apparently unhelpful).