New York cops told to stop ritual sidewalk humiliation of suspects

IT IS CALLED the "perp" walk, and for decades it has been an immutable ritual at the gritty heart of law enforcement in New York. Everyone has seen one - on the front pages, on TV, re-enacted in the movies - though you may have to ask a news reporter, preferably a news photographer, what it is exactly.

"Perp" stands for perpetrator and the "perp" walks are the few, flashgun- crazed moments when a newly nabbed suspect in a crime is walked by the arresting officers from the precinct building to the squad car parked outside through the waiting ambush of news scribblers and photographers.

It is a practice that offers rewards for everyone - the police get to show off their catch and the newsmen get what they need for their stories. Nothing is left to chance: when a "perp" walk is imminent, the precinct will alert the news organisations to take up their positions.

Of course, there is one player in these pavement dramas who will always have less to gain - the suspect. Note the word suspect; the police officers are ensuring that their features are spread across the pages of the city's newspapers long before they are brought to trial and innocence or guilt is established.

It is for this reason that New York's "perp" routine is suddenly endangered. Indeed, as of this weekend, "perps" have been provisionally suspended by the city's police commissioner, Howard Safir, following a court ruling last week.

The case concerned a former East Side doorman named John Lauro, who knows well the humiliating effect of the "perp". After being charged in 1995 with burglary in the building where he worked, he was walked from a police station to a squad car solely to benefit awaiting news cameras - the car was driven once around the block before Mr Lauro was unloaded once more into the police station.

Clearing the way for the doorman to sue the city - he was later acquitted - Judge Allen Schwartz said the walk was intended solely to embarrass Mr Lauro. He wrote: "The perp walk procedure is not designed nor intended for the purpose of information dissemination, but rather for the purposes of incident dramatisation and arrestee humiliation."

Mr Safir, however, will fight to reinstate the tradition, on the grounds that exposing suspects' faces to the public can help police investigations. "We've solved some crimes," he insisted. "We have had other witnesses come forward relative to other crimes."

The "perp", whether or not it survives Judge Schwartz, will always provide a rich seam in this city's crime history. In the 1940s, police would turn a blind eye to newsmen conspiring to stick pins into the posteriors of suspects to capture on film the expressions of pain and surprise on their faces.

A famous instance of a "perp" changing the course of a case involved Emmanuel Torres, accused in 1984 of killing a woman during an attempted rape. Baited by reporters outside the station house, he shouted: "She deserved it", and called her a "slut". The outburst was pivotal to his subsequent conviction.