What is an M.O.?
Slang for Modus operandi (a Latin phrase roughly meaning “mode of operation”) We use this word in police work to describe a criminal’s patterns and style of committing his/her crimes. Detectives identify a criminal’s M.O. to aid them in identifying a particular criminal’s pattern – allowing them to arrest the criminal or at least prevent further crimes by warning people about the patterns so they can protect themselves better (keep their garage doors closed, lock their bicycles when they leave them outside a store, for example).
