Hand off

[Allen165]

"Starting with a database of millions of bank customers, Horsley was able to generate a list of 30 highly suspicious individuals. ... As of this writing, Horsley has handed off the list of 30 to his superiors, who in turn have handed it off to the proper authorities."

"Hand off" is used in sports and means to pass the ball to a teammate. In the sentence above, it seems to be used in the sense of "pass on." Do you think this usage is correct? Perhaps the authors meant "hand in"?

Thanks!

[BobK]

'Hand off' is a minefield. In Br Eng sports (especially rugby), handing off someone is keeping them at arm's length and/or pushing them away. I came to realize when I was working for a US firm that a 'hand off' was a quite constructive thing (and not a a mixture of aggression and defence).

We would call what Horsley did handing over; what his superiors did was to hand/pass the list on.

b

[SoothingDave]

Yes, a "hand off" here is analogous to passing the ball to another teammate. For example, when engineering is finished, all of the information is handed off to manufacturing, who later hands it off to field service.