The practice, sometimes called the police’s blue carpet, became an enduring image in the 1930s when new camera technology and flashbulbs ushered in the golden age of photojournalism – and were used to great effect by J. Edgar Hoover, to bolster the reputation of his Federal Bureau of Investigation.
LES ROSE (PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM, NEWHOUSE SCHOOL, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY): Hoover realized the power of the image and wanted to completely show he got his man, because remember, we take the FBI for granted these days, and the FBI was always this pillar of greatness, but he had to build it. It is kind of like, we’re servants of the public and we were able to get the bad guy.
Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of shooting President Kennedy, was taken on more than one perp walk, until Jack Ruby emerged from the crowd. You might have thought that would have ended the practice. But in addition to building a prosecutor or a detective’s reputation, showing a suspect in handcuffs helps calm a nervous public.
LES ROSE: New York had that Summer of Sam when you don’t know if you’re going to turn a corner and there he is and then you flip on your TV, he’s arrested and you see the perp walk and I know the city had a giant exhale.