Police Create Fashion Database to Hunt Criminals
Fashion police, at your service.
Police officers in North West Leeds, England, are compiling a "fashion profiling" database that will feature the favored clothing labels and styles of suspected criminals in the area, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.
The images, which will not feature the suspects' faces, will be compared to the descriptions provided in witness and victim statements in hopes of identifying an offender.
“Photographing the clothing that known and suspected offenders wear while out and about in our burglary and robbery hot spots gives us a valuable dimension to our intelligence picture," Acting Deputy Inspector Jonny Blackwell tells the paper.
“The type of clothing a suspect is wearing can often be the most noticeable thing that a victim or witness reports to the police. Also, in offenses such as street robberies, the suspects often hide their faces which makes clothing descriptions even more important to us in tracing those involved.
“We are hopeful that this work will provide us with useful evidence that will help us to take offenders off the streets and cut offenses in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year.”
Suspects who are brought in during "stop and searches" will have their clothing photographed by police officers using camera phones.
Of course, one wonders if the "fashion library" will result in law-abiding citizens who favor a particular label or style of dress (such as hoodies) getting flak from the police. We might have to rethink that ski mask ...
Meanwhile, police footage shows this woman using her high heel to destroy an ATM.
