Eyewitness identification is known to be extraordinarily weak, yet in this case police officers were letting that decide if this man should be taken in. Even worse, we know that cross-racial identifications are often more inaccurate than the already poor identifications of people we don't know.[0]
No, I do not believe that the police are picking everyone "close to the given description of a criminal complaint". Perhaps they were trying to pick up everyone close to the description in _this_ criminal complaint.
IMHO, this is simply an excuse to pursue racial profiling. In this story, the police readily admitted that he didn't match the description (he was heavier) but they didn't really notice until after the fact and this didn't prompt them to let him go. Then what was the point of detaining him? Clearly for show, everyone in the area was reminded of how active the police were. Again, in my opinion, I suspect that the way people felt about said activity would likely break along racial lines.
"Eyewitness identification is known to be extraordinarily weak..." and then "...the police readily admitted that he didn't match the description."
You can't have it both ways. If they know the description they have from an eyewitness is weak, then they have to dig deeper to make sure they're not releasing the actual suspect. In this case, he never mentioned whether the eyewitness actually came along and said it wasn't him. All we know is that we was not arrested and no longer detained. We don't know why.
I disagree, I think if the description is weak you shouldn't be picking anyone up at all. I would argue that "digging deeper", that is picking up more people, would but the police at risk of unlawful detainment.
No, I do not believe that the police are picking everyone "close to the given description of a criminal complaint". Perhaps they were trying to pick up everyone close to the description in _this_ criminal complaint.
IMHO, this is simply an excuse to pursue racial profiling. In this story, the police readily admitted that he didn't match the description (he was heavier) but they didn't really notice until after the fact and this didn't prompt them to let him go. Then what was the point of detaining him? Clearly for show, everyone in the area was reminded of how active the police were. Again, in my opinion, I suspect that the way people felt about said activity would likely break along racial lines.
[0]: http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/a...