Police reported that the suspect is a black male, between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet tall.
This is a pretty typical suspect description you would hear on the news. Unfortunately, that just described my dad. And my brother. And my grandfather.

Describing a suspect in crime stories or briefs has always been tricky. What is appropriate to write? If you describe the clothes, will they still be wearing them? How can you tell someone’s age or weight? How much do you trust someone else’s eyes?

A big area of contention is race. There are always comments on the Web, and even discussion among journalists and editors over what is appropriate. People become angry when you omit any information that could help identify a criminal, but people get even more upset when they feel they are being racially profiled or that the media is perpetuating stereotypes.

Last year we even had a student group come in and accuse The Lantern of racism because we said in a crime brief that the crime was committed by two black males. They felt that by saying the race of the criminal, we were advocating stereotypes that African-American males are criminals.

There are two big reasons this is ridiculous. Number one: If the police provide us the race, we put it in the story. The end. It doesn’t matter black or white, we put it in the story.

Secondly, black males do commit crime. Just like white males commit crime. How are we perpetuating a stereotype by reporting what happened?

Our policy is this: If the suspect is at large, we use any descriptive information provided to us by police. If the suspect is arrested, we don’t need descriptors since we know who the criminal is.

I think it is important to give people as much information as possible about criminals, not necessarily so they can be on the lookout but because people like to know. People are drawn to crime and disasters. They want to imagine who these people are. They want to know if it could happen to them. That is why we provide them with information.

At the same time, when we do this we are telling people who to be afraid of. And more often than not, people are going to be more suspicious of a black man because that’s what they hear.

Here’s an example. My father, a suburban man and engineer, was once cuffed and put in the back of a police car because of an unpaid parking ticket (which was actually my mother’s fault.) He was driving home late at night, riding low in a black sports car and a knit hat. The cops found him suspicious, so they put him in the back of their car.

I do think some police reports are inadequate. Just describing race does nothing to identify the criminal. Telling me the suspect is Hispanic is worthless. A Hispanic man can be as dark as me or have blue eyes and blond hair.

I have seen police reports where they describe the color of the skin, such as light brown, and they describe the texture or type of hair. That is something that’s helpful.

We as journalists can’t help what sort of ideas people get when they see a description. I can’t make people stop associating black criminals with my father. But it is more irresponsible to omit information than to be politically correct.