Justice Department adds new eyewitness ID requirements.

The Department of justice has created new guidelines for federal agents, when they are collecting eyewitness identifications. The guidelines include recording the eyewitness’s confidence in their identification at the time of the ID and to perform “blind” photo arrays, which means that the agent showing the photo array does not know which photo is the actual suspect. The second guideline will help prevent the agent from giving clues or hints that this photo is the one to choose. It is important that law enforcement is careful with how they obtain identifications, because these statements are very powerful to juries. It is also important when you consider the studies that show that our memories can be unreliable.

 http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/06/508540871/justice-department-issues-new-guidance-on-securing-eyewitness-ids