A to H Person Description mnemonic

mally1

Administrator
Useful Person Description mnemonic when passing descriptions of individuals on the radio etc..

A- Age
B- Build
C- Colour
D- Distinguishing marks
E- Elevation (Height)
F- Face
G- Gate (The way they walk, limps etc)
H- Hair, Hobbies
 
ABC Method

A ge
B uild
C olour
C lothing
C omplexion
D istinguishing features
E yes
F acial hair / shape
G ender, gaite
H air, height
 
if you were in a hurry ... and you could only relay the absolute basics because of a time constraint (i.e. you need to communicate the "fastest ID" for a particular SV target) .. which ones do you choose?? If you cant have "everything", which is essential??

My suggestion ... gender, height, color of clothes (especially upper), and ONE unique feature that gives a good confirmation e.g. "male, 6 foot tall, blue coat, carrying a gray backpack on his right shoulder"

thoughts??

KL
 
if you were in a hurry ... and you could only relay the absolute basics because of a time constraint (i.e. you need to communicate the "fastest ID" for a particular SV target) .. which ones do you choose?? If you cant have "everything", which is essential??

My suggestion ... gender, height, color of clothes (especially upper), and ONE unique feature that gives a good confirmation e.g. "male, 6 foot tall, blue coat, carrying a gray backpack on his right shoulder"

thoughts??

KL

Pick the thing that differentiates them most from the crowd

At a dwarfs convention, you say '6 foot male' and don't need anything else :)
A crowd of guys and you can just say 'the blonde woman'
If you need a bit more, 'Male, blue top outside MacDonalds front door' etc

If you're close to a panic situation, the first one or two things you see will also be the firs tone or two things your team sees, so just say those. It's not ideal but if you really don't have the time a clear and quick heads up is better than wasting time trying to remember what's the right IC code etc - once the team are looking in the right direction and at probably the right target you can always add more detail as you get time.
 
agree ... I think the things that differentiate them ... are a pretty good idea.

The idea of a "quick description" works well in a handoff ... one person on the SV team is passing the description to a second person, and BOTH people have got "eyeballs ON" the target. That way, there is no possibility that the target can make quick changes that fool the system.

But a clever, or highly trained, target is a different story. They can easily take off a coat (or flip it inside out to change the color), jettison a backpack, put on a cap to hide their hair color. There are a lot of quick changes that defeat the basic ID system above. A target who is very good at anti-surveillance knows all of this stuff.

Now ... changing their height - not so easy. Changing their apparent gender ... possible with a good change in disguise - but that takes time.

so that's why I put this out there. Some of these ID's can be spoofed pretty easily. Others, not so easily.
Not many SV targets can change their shoe color, for example. Few people walk around carrying a spare pair of shoes. But shoe color is hard to spot, if your SV target is walking in a crowd of people.

cheers,
KL
 
if you were in a hurry ... and you could only relay the absolute basics because of a time constraint (i.e. you need to communicate the "fastest ID" for a particular SV target) .. which ones do you choose?? If you cant have "everything", which is essential??

My suggestion ... gender, height, color of clothes (especially upper), and ONE unique feature that gives a good confirmation e.g. "male, 6 foot tall, blue coat, carrying a gray backpack on his right shoulder"

thoughts??

KL
After a description of "5 young males in trackies and hoodies, one with an orange hoody" from a retail security person the call came back from the police "Does the one with the orange hoody have a big nose and a face a rat would look happy in?"
A perfect example of how to give a description for people to look out for immediately. Sod the PC stuff, give a description that will stick in the mind wherever possible. ie. if they're skinny as a rake then say that rather than "slim build", if they're so fat they wobble then say that rather than "large build".
The A-H was originally for intelligence files so had to have all details of a known individual. "Clothing" was a list of things they commonly wore such as clothing style or jackets worn, not just the things they'd just been seen in. If you want a list for people you have just seen in situations like retail crime and doorwork its going to be more like Race, Gender, Age, Hair, Clothing, if they're average height and build you don't generally give it. This differs from SV type work because in retail and doorwork people aren't just focussed on the one person and associates, they're all dealing with security at their own place and numerous interactions with people so descriptions need to be kept brief and to the point.

As for people changing their appearance, trousers and shoes are a little harder to change than top clothing, but its natural to give top clothing first. Also note piercings and tattoos on hands or neck, harder to see but not going to change in a hurry. Trainers often have a lot of detail such as brightly coloured trim so don't just say white Nike trainers, its those details that will make them stand out. When I worked in retail the SG were poor at descriptions the female shop assistants were brilliant as they were into the clothing and knew all the brands and noticed the small details.

One pet hate of mine is "red hair" when they mean ginger or auburn. Only say "red" when you mean dyed red.
 
If I was getting ejected I can just imagine the radio call....

"Control to response, there's a Brad Pitt lookalike, well toned and good looking, charming and sexy, you'll know him when you see him, the charisma gives him away. He'll be drinking a dry Martini, shaken not stirred"

Awww I can dream lol.
 
LittleWoman ... good thought about the red hair.
the same goes for the trainers ... don't know how things are with styles in the UK, but brightly colored trainers and laces are quite popular in the US. Extreme neon colors. Those shoes create so "much glare" ... they will burn your eyeballs out :) Certain hair styles are the same way ... I'm sure you've got them in London and the big cities.

KL
 
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