Has "person of interest" replaced "suspect"?

Just got finished reading the local news webites and they are all using "person of interest" instead of suspect. Is this a nationwide thing? Why was I not informed of this earlier? Is this the new hotness?

My hunch...somebobdy sued the bejeebies out of a law enforcement agency for using the s-word. Lost his job, lost his friends, can no longer sleep at night, etc.

Whaddaya think?

Is a person of interest later a person of conviction?

I think JTD hit it on the head...it's not the media that has coined the new terminology it's the police departments. Person of interest just doesn't have the nice harsh negative ring that suspect does...

On 2005-03-18 09:16, Tiki_Bong wrote:
Is a person of interest later a person of conviction?

Seems to work out that way most of the time.

I'm waiting for them to replace "unsub" with something that doesn't sound quite so much like a sandwich.

Somehow the sentence, "Round up the usual people of interest" doesn't hold the same allure.

What if the person is boring?

Note: "Suspect" is unword. Replace with "Person of Interest".

Double-plus good!

It's a Fed thing.

The guy who was "a suspect" in the Atlanta Bombings was called that by the FBI "A Suspect" He filed a suit against them for using that phrase, which defamed his person as he ended up not being "Found Guilty"

As I understand it, it's mostly the Federal Govt who uses that term now.

Here's an article on this from a while back:
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/02/16/Worldandnation/_Person_of_interest__.shtml

I think "Dude" or "Chick" would be better (and less damaging in the long run) but that's just me.