Re:A Digital Rumor Should Never Lead to a Police Raid
by Bartweiss on Thursday September 22, 2016 @04:12PM
(#12559946)
Absolutely, and I'm glad you brought it up.
I skipped accuracy to observe that even correct profiling has problems, but it's hugely important to see that over-reliance on profiling is a threat to solving cases.
Re:A Digital Rumor Should Never Lead to a Police Raid
by Manishearth on Friday September 23, 2016 @03:00AM
(#12562834)
The Illustrated Guide to Law has tons on this in the criminal procedure section (http://lawcomic.net/guide/?page_id=5#crimpro)
The memory and facial recognition stuff starts here http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=3034
There are more than enough documented cases of rape, assault and other crime in which the victim could not identify the perpetrator with any degree of certainty.
Profiling is an important tool in law enforcement but it works when it's built on proper evidence and statistical models not sketchy witness reports.