Got him!

dvaey said :

Ello Vera said :

Saw a car the other day with “Police” written on it. Will these be changed to “Policing”?

I think the bigger news was that you saw a police car, most probably at a PR event or a station?

Dvaey doesn’t see police cars = they don’t exist. Love that logic.

Ello Vera said :

Saw a car the other day with “Police” written on it. Will these be changed to “Policing”?

I think the bigger news was that you saw a police car, most probably at a PR event or a station?

Further to that, the CT report says that the driver was charged with “negligent driving, causing grievous bodily harm, causing public mischief and not stopping to give assistance”. Notice the lack of a charge related to stealing the car…

swissbignose said :

Ozi said :

However, they can’t put “Police executed a warrant and found his t-shirt covered in his own blood from when he pranged his car, busted his nose and ran home before reporting it stolen” as that tends to be a tad prejudicial.

I don’t believe the Police are saying that the driver of the BMW and the owner of the BMW are the same person.

That’s the way I read it.

Same as “Nil suspicious circumstances” when reporting a death = suicide

buzz819 said :

Deref said :

LSWCHP said :

Yeah, I just don’t get the weird usages in the police bulletins. “The man has then come out…” instead of “The man then came out…”, “Police have…” etc.

+1

“A male person was observed proceeding in an easterly direction…”

And who decided that the plural of “person” was “persons”?

Well it was decided along time before us that that was indeed the case.

There is some confusion regarding the two terms, especially because their meaning and usage suffered a mutation along the centuries. Both derive from Latin, but from different words.
Person derives from persona, which refers to an individual. People, on the other hand, derives from populum, and it refers to a group of persons sharing a culture or social environment.

Person is a singular form, and its plural is persons. Over the time, however, many writers started to adopt people as the plural form of person, and nowadays it is widely accepted. Notice that legal and very formal texts still use persons as the plural form.

So I guess that as Police still produce legal text you have your answer? Or am I missing something?

Interesting historically and etymologically, but do you say “I know those persons over there” or “there were a lot of persons at the party”?

Deref said :

LSWCHP said :

Yeah, I just don’t get the weird usages in the police bulletins. “The man has then come out…” instead of “The man then came out…”, “Police have…” etc.

+1

“A male person was observed proceeding in an easterly direction…”

And who decided that the plural of “person” was “persons”?

Well it was decided along time before us that that was indeed the case.

There is some confusion regarding the two terms, especially because their meaning and usage suffered a mutation along the centuries. Both derive from Latin, but from different words.
Person derives from persona, which refers to an individual. People, on the other hand, derives from populum, and it refers to a group of persons sharing a culture or social environment.

Person is a singular form, and its plural is persons. Over the time, however, many writers started to adopt people as the plural form of person, and nowadays it is widely accepted. Notice that legal and very formal texts still use persons as the plural form.

So I guess that as Police still produce legal text you have your answer? Or am I missing something?

Ozi said :

However, they can’t put “Police executed a warrant and found his t-shirt covered in his own blood from when he pranged his car, busted his nose and ran home before reporting it stolen” as that tends to be a tad prejudicial.

I don’t believe the Police are saying that the driver of the BMW and the owner of the BMW are the same person.

Ello Vera said :

“Evidentiary items” eh. And here’s me thinking ACT police were trying to speak plainly. Maybe that move came a cropper.

Saw a car the other day with “Police” written on it. Will these be changed to “Policing”?

The wording is a bit daft, at times. However, they can’t put “Police executed a warrant and found his t-shirt covered in his own blood from when he pranged his car, busted his nose and ran home before reporting it stolen” as that tends to be a tad prejudicial. (I’m not familiar with the case, just speculating on what “evidentiary items” may mean in this case.) The whole innocent until proven guilty thing has to apply. Pesky justice system.

LSWCHP said :

Yeah, I just don’t get the weird usages in the police bulletins. “The man has then come out…” instead of “The man then came out…”, “Police have…” etc.

+1

“A male person was observed proceeding in an easterly direction…”

And who decided that the plural of “person” was “persons”?

homeone said :

Ello Vera said :

“Evidentiary items” eh. And here’s me thinking ACT police were trying to speak plainly. Maybe that move came a cropper.

Saw a car the other day with “Police” written on it. Will these be changed to “Policing”?

Or may be “Policing have ..”

Yeah, I just don’t get the weird usages in the police bulletins. “The man has then come out…” instead of “The man then came out…”, “Police have…” etc.