[DesertRhino]

“person of interest”

That retarded weasel-word meaningless phrase pops up YET again. there is no such thing. There are “witnesses”, “citizens”, etc,,whom the officer does not believe to be involved.

Once “reasonable suspicion” indicates that someone is the possible offender, they are a “suspect”, not a “person of interest”.
Once the investigation raises “reasonable suspicion” to the higher standard of “”probable cause” they are the “accused”.

“Person of interest” is precisely the same as “suspect”. Any cop using the term “person of interest” exposes themself as an incompetent.

[dragnet2]

Actually, there is. A person of interest might not actually be a witness, but someone who simply has a connection to or someone with knowledge of a suspect or information regarding a crime. And many times, they will not call a suspect a suspect if the suspect is still outstanding, as they try to avoid their person of interest heading for the tall grass. If the person of interest hears they are being called a suspect, many times they will run/hide.

Other times, they are called a person of interest, until the person is actually charged with a specific crime. Many times, they wait until the person being detained, has their home/vehicles searched for additional evidence prior to calling the person of interest, a suspect.

There are a few other reasons for doing this as well.