criminal-law
Is it ever a good idea to volunteer for a &quot;photo line up&quot;?
<p>Many years ago I was walking down the street when several patrol cars quickly pulled up, police jumped out and sternly stated, "Stop. Can I see some ID?" (with hands on guns/tasers ready for a chase).</p>

<p>Naturally I stopped and showed ID. No problem. </p>

<p>Once the officers saw I was cooperative and not trying to be difficult, they lowered their defenses and became much more cordial. </p>

<p>I learned that I "matched the description" of someone who apparently had just moments before committed an armed robbery a few blocks away. Okay, so I get why I was stopped. Again, no problem. They took my information and let me go on my way.</p>

<p>A few days later, two officers knocked on my door and asked if I would "come down to the station to be part of a photo line-up." Note that I have no criminal record and there is most likely nothing "on file" that would have been sufficient for the police to use.</p>

<p>Due to my circumstances - just got off work, had a job that left me smelling of gas, tar, and asphalt and very, very greasy and grimy and I hadn't had a chance to clean up yet - I politely turned down their request. This wasn't a problem. The officers went on their way.</p>

<p>Much later I read somewhere that one should <strong>never</strong> pose for a photo line up because if the "witness" makes a mistake you could be in a whole lot of trouble quickly with little or no cause for it.</p>

<p><strong>Is it ever a good idea to pose for a photo line up if you haven't been charged with anything?</strong></p>

<p>In this instance, the police were almost certainly trying to get you to volunteer to be in a line-up with the victim of the crime picking out potential suspects (of which you were absolutely one, and <strong>probably remain so</strong>).</p>
<p>Assuming the chap or chappete who got mugged, who basically only saw <a href="https://miro.medium.com/max/1024/1*002HzShZQG2WpG8gVf-K-A.jpeg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the barrel of the gun</a>, picked you out of the lineup at random, you could have expected to be carted off to a holding cell pending an interview, followed by arrest and very likely conviction for armed robbery.</p>
<p><strong>You were wise to refuse. You should <em>never cooperate with the police</em> even if you think have an amazing alibi that means that you couldn't have committed the crime.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE</a></p>

<p>In theory, if the police have one suspect and pick up five more random strangers for a lineup, then it is not impossible that the suspect is totally innocent and one of the five random strangers is in fact the perpetrator. And that random stranger might be identified which eventually would lead to a conviction. </p>

<p>And again in theory, if the police have one suspect and pick up five more random strangers for a lineup, then it is not impossible that the suspect is totally innocent and one of the five random strangers looks by coincidence very much like the perpetrator. And that random stranger might be identified which eventually would lead to a conviction of an innocent person. And that person might be you. </p>

<p>I would probably not volunteer at all, and definitely not volunteer unless I had a cast iron alibi. </p>

<p>Whether to cooperate with the police is a mater of judgement, not of law. The police cannot <strong>compel</strong> a person to participate in a line up unless they arrest that person. If they can get a photo of the person, they can stage a photo line up without anyone's consent.</p>
<p>Most lineups have only a single suspected person present.</p>
<p>Many years ago, I did A summer internship with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/12/obituaries/robert-buckhout-writer-and-professor-of-psychology-55.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dr. Robert Buckhout</a>. (See also <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eyewitness-testimony/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">his <em>Scientific American</em> article on Eyewitness Testimony</a>) I learned from him that the rate of error in eyewitness identification was much higher than many people, including lawyers and Judges, often believe, and that relying on the identification of a stranger seen briefly during a brief stressful encounter such as  an armed robbery is quite risky.</p>
<p>In addition, he told me of many cases he had been involved with where the police had attempted to subvert the process. It was not uncommon, he said, for police who asked a person to &quot;come down&quot; for a line up or a photo to arrange that the suspect be seen by the victim or witness  outside of and before the lineup, <strong>before</strong> the supposed lineup. His research demonstrated that such a practice drastically affected the results of the lineup, even when the &quot;suspect&quot; had never before been seen by the witness.</p>
<p>Whether, in view of such possibilities, it is wise to agree to a lineup or photo, is a matter of judgement. Perhaps if a person had been addressing the town council, recorded on local TV at the time of the alleged crime, it  could do no harm.</p>
