If you are a human person who is currently alive, chances are you have seen a scene on a television show with the dramatization of a police lineup. Sometimes they are great, intense moments where we can see a detective's thought process, sometimes they are hilarious moments of having the lineup sing "I Want It That Way." In either situation, they are usually portrayed incorrectly.
The scene above is one of the funniest cold opens in the history of Brooklyn Nine Nine, and possibly in the history of television. But any police officer or psychologist will tell you that this is not the proper way to orchestrate a police lineup.
Having a bunch of different people who look very different is not going to actually help you find the perpetrator who committed a crime. If the victim has an image of the killer that they have likely already told the officers about, then there is no point in having a bunch of random people there. If the victim says that the perp was a white guy and then there is only one white guy in the lineup, that is probably who they will pick. Does that mean that they found the right guy? Unlikely.
(To further beat this point to death, if the witness reported being robbed by a ballet dancer and they are show the lineup above, they are probably going to pick #3, the only ballet dancer. Does that mean that she is the criminal? No. It means the victim has picked the number that most accurately lines up with their idea of the criminal. If you want to do this lineup properly, it should really be a bunch of very similar looking ballerinas.)
In a study reported in Psychology Today by Dr. Art Markman, it was found that witnesses were more likely to select a distinctive figure rather than the correct one. "People shown a lineup in which only one suspect had a distinctive feature often selected that face, whether it was the actual perpetrator or an innocent suspect."
The truth is that eyewitness testimony is often incredibly unreliable. Memories can be clouded by intense emotion, and sometimes a person will construct the scene in their head without realizing it isn't accurate. Context is incredibly important. The accuracy of eyewitness testimony has been hotly debated in psychological circles, so if you want IDs to be of any help at all, you have to do it right. Although eyewitness testimony can be the clincher in many criminal cases, it can often lead law enforcement on a wild goose chase.
"Mistaken eyewitness identification accounts for more than 70% of wrongful convictions that are ultimately overturned by what law enforcement officers are increasingly considering more objective DNA evidence," wrote Maia Szakavitz in Time. This is why proper police procedure is very important if a lineup is to be effective in any way.
The American Psychological Association actually has recommendations for police lineups based on studies of memory and cognition. You never want to put something in a witness' head that wasn't there before. Officers shouldn't be giving the victims any ideas as that could potentially cause them to come to a different conclusion.
If a witness has given a specific description, it is important that the people in the lineup match that description. Otherwise, the victim may choose someone who happens to have a distinctive face or bad vibes rather than the real perpetrator. There cannot be any factors that could sway a suggestible witness. You don't want them to pick out a suspect just because they were tall or because they talked funny. You want them to pick the person because they are certain.
The APA suggests that witnesses are informed that the person who committed the crime might not even be in the lineup. This helps them to be more discerning as they are less likely to feel pressured to pick someone. Recently some police departments have chosen an alternative of showing photos to witnesses. This may help decrease the emotional intensity of the situation so that the person can focus. In this case, the APA often recommends a sequential display of photos, where the person is required to make a decision before moving onto the next photo. Police officers are also supposed to record the results in detail.
(In a situation like this, not only are the wildly varied heights and appearance going to mislead the witness into thinking they have picked the right person, but they may even pick the person who just happened to be the better actor. The real perp probably isn't going to recreate the scene to their best ability since they know it will land them in jail)
(I also have never seen this movie in its entirety, so I am focusing on the problems in this scene alone without knowing how the movie actually ends. Who are the Usual Suspects, anyway?)
Eyewitness account alone is not enough to seal a conviction or even charges. In fact, the APA reported on the limitations of eyewitness testimony techniques: "Many prison inmates whose convictions hinged on eyewitness identification were later proven innocent by DNA testing." Officers are required to have evidence as well if they want to make the charges stick. While an emotional testimony may certainly dampen some eyes in the jury, it does not mean that the right person has been caught. In order to ensure that justice is served, police officers must follow the letter of the law and prove the guilt of the criminal. Pointing a person out in a lineup just isn't enough.
Luckily, police officers today are well aware of that. Law enforcement and psychologists often work in tandem, both to increase the effectiveness of law enforcement techniques and to ensure the mental and emotional health of those in the field. Unfortunately, it seems that once again, directors and writers for television haven't caught up with that. It may be a hilarious moment when "Scary Terry" fills out a police lineup, but it won't be great when the witness chooses the only guy who was making a scene even though he's not the perp. If I see another blatantly incorrect police lineup on my favorite cop shows, I will heave my laptop out the window. Please make it look like these officers actually know how to do their jobs. Thank you.
Bonus fact: Police lineups are sometimes called "identity parades."
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