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Henry Louis Gates Jr. We have heard the Harvard professor’s name many times these past two weeks over his arrest at his Massachusetts home. We have heard the 911 call in which Lucia Whalen requests that police investigate two men she thought were burglars entering the house. She doesn’t identify his race until the emergency operator asks if he’s black, white or Hispanic.

Gates-gate brings up a provocative question: Why identify race in suspect descriptions?

Identifying race can help make arrests, if race is identified with other distinctive characteristics.

It helps no one to write "Greensboro police are looking for a Black man with a medium-build in his 30s who is suspected of stealing a blue van Monday night."

This description is vague. What constitutes a medium build? How many men fit this description in Greensboro? Hundreds and hundreds.

A vague description might not lead to an arrest because it gives law enforcement a broad category from which to find the one culprit. Such descriptions also could foster established stereotypes and promote discriminatory practices, let's say, against all 30-something black men with medium builds.

The News & Record crime reporting policy mandates that race is only identified if it is essential to the understanding of the story. If race is described, then the suspect’s height, weight, build, hair, age, clothing and vehicle also should be described. Describing distinctive scars and tattoos is even better. Case in point, today’s story about a cop impersonator chasing a woman.

Sometimes the authorities don't provide a writer with a full description of the suspect, but reporters try to give readers information that advances the story and assists law enforcement.