Have you ever watched a police lineup on TV and wondered how real-life detectives manage to find so many similar-looking potential perps in a hurry? Sometimes they round up police officers or department employees, or friends of friends. But in New York, they sometimes call Robert Weston, police lineup casting director. It's an odd job, but somebody's got to do it.
Read how he builds a lineup at the New York Times. Link -via Breakfast Links
(Image credit: The Bronx District Attorney)
Mr. Weston says he is always on call; his Bluetooth earpiece comes off in public only when he goes to the barber for his weekly $16 trim. His cellphone, he says, holds the numbers of some 100 potential lineup fillers, mostly friends and acquaintances from the Mill Brook Houses, the public housing project in the South Bronx where he has lived most of his life.
He often complains about how people hound him for the chance to make a few dollars through lineup work.
“I can’t even play basketball on the courts or sit here and drink a beer,” Mr. Weston said on a recent afternoon. “People are always asking me if there is a lineup.”
Fillers are paid $10 for a local lineup in the Bronx. For each lineup that Mr. Weston fills in the Bronx, he receives $10; he gets more if he sits in as a filler or if his services are required in another borough.
Read how he builds a lineup at the New York Times. Link -via Breakfast Links
(Image credit: The Bronx District Attorney)