Experts define ‘person of interest’

On March 23, when University spokesman Robert Hill said the police identified a “person of… On March 23, when University spokesman Robert Hill said the police identified a “person of interest” for the string of bomb threats on Pitt’s campus this semester, many assumed that police were close to making an arrest.

But legal experts and police agree that the term “person of interest” is not synonymous with “suspect,” despite many people associating the two terms as such.

Diane Richards, spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh police department, said that the term does not carry an assumption of guilt.

“A person(s) of interest simply means that Law Enforcement is interested in speaking with those who they feel can assist or provide information regarding an investigation,” she said in an email.

A person of interest does not carry any direct implication of culpability without an admission of guilt or further evidence that links the individual with the crime.

Tony Gaskew, director of the criminal justice program at the University of Pittsburgh’s Bradford campus, said the term “person of interest” carries no legal definition. Police may use the phrase to identify any individual connected with a case, such as a possible witness to a crime or the person they believe committed the act.

Gaskew emphasized that law enforcement distinguishes between a person of interest, which does not implicate a person directly in a crime, and the term suspect, which does.

“If a person has been named a suspect, there is an assumption of due process,” he said, adding that “suspect” refers to a person for whom law enforcement has probable cause to implicate him or her of a crime.

Gaskew added that there is no legal definition for what the term “person of interest” means.

John Burkoff, a professor who specializes in criminal law at Pitt’s School of Law, agreed that there is no technical definition for “person of interest.”

“‘Person of interest’ is really a term of convenience,” Burkoff said. “It’s not a ‘term of art.’”

Legal professionals use “term of art” to describe a technical expression with a precise meaning.

He said authorities may say that they have identified a person of interest in order to assure a nervous public that they are conducting investigations.

Gaskew said that the expression person of interest became part of the public vernacular after the media incorrectly labeled Richard Jewell as a suspect in the attempted bombing during the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

Gaskew said news channels and papers labeled Jewell as a suspect after the security guard discovered the bomb planted at the Olympic site and alerted police about the threat. Jewell, who was never charged with the crime, later brought successful lawsuits against the news organizations that implicated him.

“Prior to the Richard Jewell case, the media would often name a person of interest as a suspect,” Gaskew said, adding that the media have become more cautious about using the label, which carries with it a direct link between an individual and the commission of a crime.

Like Gaskew, Richard stressed that while the term appears often, it should not be taken as a label of guilt.

“Again, this does not implicate or tie anyone to a crime until it can be justly proven that the person(s) has indeed initiated the crime or was an accomplice/conspirator in a crime,” she said in an email.