No, sorry, my bad.

[conuly]

THIS is the most WTF article today.

Cops Digitally Erase Suspect's Facial Tattoos To Make Him Look More Like The Robbery Suspect Caught On Camera

This is, apparently, SOP. But even then it's not usually quite so blatant.

Comments

[thewayne]

OMG. I am so glad that I no longer work in law enforcement. It's one thing to improve the lighting in a surveillance photo to get a better image of a suspect, but to actually alter the image of the suspect - that's way to far.

[conuly]

That lighting in that picture was not "improved" either. Like, obviously the first thing I'd say when seeing that pic is "Hey, who did this lighting? What's with those weird shadows?"

[thewayne]

I've served on one jury trial back in the early '80s: a kid charged with three counts of selling marijuana to a minor, one count of selling marijuana.  All to the same person, person turned 18 during the scope of the investigation.  We convicted on three of the four counts: they didn't have photos of the bust that we acquitted on.  The strange thing about all of it was this was in Mesa, AZ: BIG Mormon town.  The defendant was black.  And stepping out with the white investigating detective's sister, and he didn't like it.  If I'd known about jury annulment at the time, I might have pressed for it as it was clearly a setup and I have my doubts the detective would have gone after the guy if he'd been white.

[conuly]

Sheesh. I hope that kid got a short sentence or an early release or something.

[thewayne]

Unfortunately I have no idea.

[silveradept]

Makes me wonder how many people pled out and are serving sentences they wouldn't have gotten if it weren't for the forged "evidence" of their crime.

[conuly]

A LOT. LIKE, A LOT A LOT.

[silveradept]

Like, many more than I am thinking, and that's with having a clue about the school to prison pipeline.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

That is outrageously fucked-up. And even without the tattoos, looking at the pictures, those guys have obviously very different ears. (Ears are almost as individual as fingerprints, there's no way to change them, and it doesn't even occur to most people that they could be identified that way.) These shite cops need some disciplinary action. Probably won't get it though.

[conuly]

Also, the second photo LOOKS altered. Like, if the cops showed me this, I'm gonna ask the same thing I thought when I saw it online: What the hell is up with the lighting here!?