Nice Little Bit of Copspeak

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 7/1/02 10:48:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG writes:

> Just quick little quote of copspeak, because it has one of my favorite
>  copspeak-type attributes:
>
>  http://www.mycfnow.com/orlpn/news/stories/news-153796020020701-040738.html
>
>  "We did have a home invasion that occured here on the 28th just a few days
>  ago. It was robbery type incident inside the house. Obviously having
another
>  incident this soon, possibly they are related," Maitland police Lt. Gary
>  Calhoun said.

Not copspeak.  Just an example of bureaucratese that happened to be
describing an incident in the jurisdiction of the police department.  Or
perhaps legalese---the department's legal counsel might have told the
department not to describe something as a "robbery" or a "burglary" until the
grand jury returned an indictment, because local defense lawyers might accuse
the police of jumping to conclusions or something.  The phrase "robbery-type
incident" sounds like something a cautious department counsel might require.

     - Jim Landau