I would guess that "the shortest" just means the shortest in a group of suspects, for example if you're explaining that the shortest in the group had red hair and the tallest had a glass eye.
Good point. Then you got the "strikingly" short guy (or gal): "She walked like six feet tall with an attitude to match, but was short, and strikingly short"
UK police still use 'IC codes' to describe suspects' ethnicities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_code
As immortalised by Black Box Recorder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-s_cMk7wYs
The paper is available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2025.2... from Cryptologia v50, 2026.
A PDF of Bellovin's paper (marked "draft") is available from the author at https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/papers/codebooks.pdf .
A "preliminary version" of the same paper is available at https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~CS4HS/talks/codebooks.pdf .
The "International Police Telegraph code" is available at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C210621 ; registration required.
"Your browser doesn't accept cookies. Cookies are required to use this site."
"Security check required We've detected unusual activity from your network. To continue, complete the security check below."
And there is nothing to click.
I got a pop-up asking me to resend data. I declined...
Now I know where the name Axe body spray comes from.
Somehow Beverly Hills cop came to mind :)
PS. I am really curious as to what would make one "strikingly short" as opposed to just very short or "the shortest".-
I would guess that "the shortest" just means the shortest in a group of suspects, for example if you're explaining that the shortest in the group had red hair and the tallest had a glass eye.
Good point. Then you got the "strikingly" short guy (or gal): "She walked like six feet tall with an attitude to match, but was short, and strikingly short"