"Person of Interest" (1970)

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PERSON OF INTEREST--306,000 Google hits
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The NYC news (tabloids especially) is all over the murder investigation of  a 
graduate student. One person (a bouncer) had a positive blood identification. 
 Is he a "suspect"? No.
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He's a "person of interest."
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Who is a person of interest? Paris Hilton? Pamela Anderson?
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"Person of interest" is not in the revised OED. OED editors should check  out 
crime scene investigations more.
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There's an important article on "persons of interest" in a recent American  
Journalism Review (see below). The article traces the term to the Atlanta  
Olympics bombing in 1996 and Richard Jewell, but "person of interest" was used  in 
the Green River murder case in the 1980s and goes back to security  
terminology from at least 1970.
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(GOOGLE NEWS)
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_Police: Bouncer's Blood Tied to Grad Student  Case_ 
(http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1716274&page=1) 
ABC News -   <NOBR>14 
... Littlejohn had been  the sole "person of interest" in the sexually 
motivated  killing of St. Guillen, a 24-year-old graduate student. ... 
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(GOOGLE GROUPS)
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    _AMC:  TAN: Nancy Kerrigan_ 
(http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.tv.soaps/browse_thread/thread/5837d389697206c6/04301880f4d274ed?lnk=st&q="person+of
+interest"&rnum=26&hl=en#04301880f4d274ed)  
... (PORTLAND)- Portland figure  skater Tonya Harding admitted last night 
Detroit police
are naming her  a person of interest in the investigation of last  week's ... 
  
_rec.arts.tv.soaps_ 
(http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.tv.soaps?lnk=sg&hl=en)  - Jan 12 1994, 7:59 pm by AJ - 39 messages - 26 authors  
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_Green River_ 
(http://groups.google.com/group/alt.true-crime/browse_thread/thread/c5da8137210ab0f4/9657952630151bb3?lnk=st&q="person+of+interest"&rnum=10&hl
=en#9657952630151bb3)  
... absolutely riveting.  Dave Bill Stevens, the person of interest, did die  
of
cancer (pancreatic), according to newspaper reports. Good ...  
_alt.true-crime_ (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.true-crime?lnk=sg&hl=en) 
 - Jul  28 1996, 1:03 pm by Stethmir - 3 messages - 3 authors 
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_Mountian Tops..._ 
(http://groups.google.com/group/spk.phoenix/browse_thread/thread/543cb20589b8bb4/3ae71f4f15d59b9f?lnk=st&q="person+of+interest"&rnum=8&hl
=en#3ae71f4f15d59b9f)  
... kind of agent  I'd expect at my door, were I ever to be unfortunate 
enough to  be
'handpicked' by the FBI as a 'non-suspect' or a 'person of  interest' It sure 
is ...   
_spk.phoenix_ (http://groups.google.com/group/spk.phoenix?lnk=sg&hl=en)  - 
Sep 14  1996, 12:42 pm by Dennis Mott - 9 messages - 7 authors 
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(GOOGLE)
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_American  Journalism Review_ (http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4042)      
"Obviously, 'person of interest' is a  number of steps from someone who has ... 
Whether calling someone a  "person of interest" is illegal remains to be seen 
 ...
www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4042 - 35k -  _Cached_ 
(http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:-JOi0KZgke8J:www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4042+"person+of+interest"&hl=
en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&ie=UTF-8)  - _Similar pages_ 
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=related:www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4042) 
 
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(PROQUEST)
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_Surveillance  of Citizens Stirs Debate; Government Surveillance of Citizens 
and the Storage of  Data Stir a Debate _ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=82609424&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&
TS=1142255211&clientId=65882) 
By BEN A. FRANKLIN Special to The  New York Times. New York Times 
(1857-Current  file). New York, N.Y.: Dec 27, 1970. p. 1 (2 pages) 
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Pg. 44:
The definition of "persons of interest" used by the United States Secret  
Service, which has the mission of protecting the President, includes those who  
might seek merely to "embarrass" the President.
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_Citizen  File Kept By Police; Supervisors In Fairfax to Study System _ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=2&did=119788766&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=
PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1142255385&clientId=65882) 
By Judy Nicol Washington Post Staff Writer. The Washington Post (1974-Current 
file). Washington, D.C.: May  9, 1974. p. C1 (1 page) 
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The Fairfax County police department maintains an automated computer list  of 
"persons of interest to the police even though they may not have committed  
crimes," and county supervisors are asking why.
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_Police  Accept Suspect's Alibi in Green River Case_ 
(http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=5&did=115473880&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=
309&VName=HNP&TS=1142255589&clientId=65882) 
New York  Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Aug 23, 1989. p. A12 (1 
page) 
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_Stille a "Person of Interest"_
"He's still considered a 'person of interest,'" Mr. Ray said of Mr.  Stevens. 
"He is not being dropped."
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    From AJR,   _February/March  2006_ 
(http://www.ajr.org/index.asp?artType=2)   
_Printer Friendly_ (http://www.ajr.org/article_printable.asp?id=4042)  
Dilemma of Interest   
Many law enforcement officials now use the vague term “person of  interest” 
to describe people caught up in their investigations. That  poses a challenge 
for journalists, who must try to convey a situation  accurately without 
unfairly tarring someone’s reputation. 
By Donna Shaw 
When Robert Lutner saw on the news  that two close friends, Brenda Groene and 
her boyfriend, Mark McKenzie,  had been bound and bludgeoned to death along 
with Groene's 13-year-old  son, Slade, he broke down and wept. Frantic, he 
began calling other  friends, trying to get more information. What had happened? 
Who could have  done such a thing? And where were two other Groene children — 
Shasta, 8,  and Dylan, 9 — both reported missing?  
Lutner, who had been at Groene's Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, home on May 15,  2005, 
the day before the bodies were found, called the hotline set up by  the local 
sheriff to offer any information he could. He says no one called  him back. 
So he and some friends drove around the area, searching for the  children. They 
found nothing.  
Shocked and emotionally drained — Brenda Groene and McKenzie "were like  
family," Lutner says — he went home and did something he knew he  shouldn't: He 
got drunk. Lutner, 33, is on probation for unemployment  fraud and is forbidden 
to drink. So when his probation officer called that  evening and said he 
needed to see him immediately, Lutner ignored him and  turned off his phone.  
"The next thing I know, I turn on the TV and see that I'm a 'person of  
interest,'" says Lutner, a concrete worker and father of two. "It was like  I was 
in a dream world."  
Like a growing number of people caught up in such investigations,  Lutner 
wasn't being called a suspect — or even a target, witness or  subject, terms 
often used by prosecutors. And since he wasn't charged with  a crime, he certainly 
wasn't a defendant. But police were handing out his  mug shot and 
descriptions of his vehicles, telling reporters that Lutner  might know the whereabouts 
of the two missing children.  
Once heard primarily in connection with federal cases involving  terrorism 
and national security, many local police departments now use  "person of 
interest" routinely in investigations ranging from murders to  brush fires.  
Journalists — confronted with high-profile cases and competitors hot on  
their heels — must decide how to handle the vague term to describe what  could be 
the central figure in their stories. A "person of interest"  hasn't been 
charged, much less convicted, of a crime. But the term clearly  casts suspicion, 
even when police insist they "just want to talk" to the  person in question.  
Last year, news reporters used the term to describe dozens of people in  more 
than 40 cases in 19 states, according to news database searches. The  media 
referred by name to the vast majority of these people, even though  at AJR's 
deadline at least half had not been charged with any crimes. In  most instances, 
reporters appeared to use the term without pressing police  to define it, 
leaving the interpretation up to the audience.  
>From that list, Lutner was one of at least seven who were exonerated,  
including three in a single case. One "person of interest" killed himself.  Like 
Lutner, many "persons of interest" have previous criminal records —  raising the 
additional question of whether they ever can escape their  pasts.  
Officially, "person of interest"  means..well, nothing. No one has ever 
formally defined it — not police,  not prosecutors, not journalists. The terms 
"accused," "allege," "arrest"  and "indict" all are dealt with in the Associated 
Press Stylebook, but  there is no listing for "person of interest." Similarly, 
the U.S.  Attorneys' Manual — the official guide to federal criminal 
prosecution —  uses the terms "suspect," "subject," "target" and "material witness," 
but  "person of interest" gets no mention. So what are reporters to do?  
"The reporter should be on notice that it is a vague term that has no  real 
understandable definition," says Gerald B. Lefcourt, a New York  defense 
attorney and past president of the National Association of  Criminal Defense 
Lawyers. His advice to journalists: "You have to ask the  police what they mean."  
Kristin Gazlay, the AP's deputy managing editor for national news, says  that 
before naming anyone, "we need to look at why this person is a  'person of 
interest'..also we have to recognize that police sometimes use  this as a 
technique to pressure people to talk." She says that "in cases  high profile and low 
profile," AP editors routinely discuss whether to use  the names.  
"Obviously, 'person of interest' is a number of steps from someone who  has 
been charged," Gazlay says.  
Jim Kouri, a spokesman for the National Association of Chiefs of  Police, 
says "person of interest" often is a euphemism for "suspect."  
"If it's a suspect and you say 'person of interest,' you're using the  
euphemism to avoid problems down the line," says Kouri, a former New York  housing 
police officer. What problems? Police sometimes "try to maintain  that the 
person really isn't a suspect" in order to get him to agree to  questioning 
without Miranda warnings, Kouri says. "You don't want the guy  to lawyer up."  
Kouri says across the country, "it's the legal counsel telling police  chiefs 
that they should instruct their officers and train them to use that  term."  
Although the Justice Department has said it does not know who coined  the 
phrase, it came into prominent use after the July 1996 Olympics  bombing in 
Atlanta. The FBI leaked the name of security guard Richard A.  Jewell, who for 
nearly three months was the unofficial but primary suspect  in the case (see 
_"Going to  Extremes," October 1996_ (http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=437) ).  
During that period, Jewell was the subject of numerous news stories  that 
strongly suggested he was the bomber. Eventually the real culprit was  
apprehended, tried and convicted. Jewell sued several news organizations,  most of which 
reached out-of-court settlements with him, and eventually  got an apology 
from then-Attorney General Janet Reno.  
But judging by the increasing numbers of people identified as "persons  of 
interest" since then, neither the authorities nor the media have  resolved how 
or whether to use the term.  
In September 2002, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to  then-Attorney 
General John Ashcroft, asking him to produce any policies or  other written 
materials that defined "person of interest" as used by the  FBI to describe 
scientist Steven J. Hatfill in connection with the anthrax  mailings that killed 
five people in late 2001. (See _"Into the Spotlight,"  November 2002_ 
(http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=2690) .) The Justice Department responded three 
months later,  prompting a press release from Grassley.  
"There is no formal policy, level of evidentiary standard, procedure,  or 
formal definition for the term 'person of interest,'" the release  stated. 
"Government agencies need to be mindful of the power they wield  over individual 
citizens, and should exercise caution and good judgment  when they use that 
power."  
Whether calling someone a "person of interest" is illegal remains to be  
seen; Hatfill has sued the Justice Department, Ashcroft and the FBI,  alleging 
they violated his constitutional rights by publicly implicating  him "without 
formally naming him as a suspect or charging him with any  wrongdoing." Hatfill 
says the government unconstitutionally deprived him  of earning a living by 
leaking false information to divert media attention  from the fact that the 
government has failed to solve the case.  

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