The Garda Síochána is considering a modern version of the identity parade that uses a video database of 'foils' instead of lining up 'suspects', writes DAVIN O'DWYER
EMAIL RENDERED the letter redundant, then downloads made CDs irrelevant, while bookshops are being endangered by online retailers. Such is the price of progress.
The latest tradition to be threatened by the march of technology is harder to predict. The storied police line-up, a staple of police procedurals and crime dramas since the era when Jimmy Cagney was cinema’s criminal-in-chief, is being superseded by video identification parades. Instead of lining up a suspect and eight or so lookalikes, the new version of the identity parade uses a vast database of “foils”, brief clips of volunteers that can be brought up on computer, allowing the witness to view a series of 15-second video clips of possible culprits.
The system has been pioneered by the West Yorkshire police for more than a decade, and since 2002 it has been rolled out to police stations across the UK, going by the rather sci-fi acronym Viper – video identification parade electronic recording. It has been used in a number of high-profile cases, including the investigation into the murder of Damilola Taylor.
A proposal by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to allow for the introduction of the video identification parade system in this country will be included in the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill due to come before the Oireachtas later this year. Improving the system of identity parades was specified in the 2007 Programme for Government, which promised to “protect the identities of witnesses and victims at identification parades through the installation of one-way glass in Garda stations”. Unlike the US system we’re familiar with from movies and TV shows, where witnesses are behind a one-way glass partition, witnesses in this country have no such protection, having to stand in the same room as the line-up. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, among others, has criticised the process as being unfair on witnesses and victims.
A 2008 Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform progress report on the Programme for Government suggested plans for the provision of dedicated identification suites with one-way glass was already being superseded by the new technology: “The Garda authorities are currently examining a more modern electronic video-identification-based system that would replace the traditional ‘parade’ identification methods. This new approach is seen as more user-friendly and less threatening to the witness/injured party.”
It’s not just the witness who benefits from the video system: for gardaí, it means a lot less effort spent on the time-consuming process of finding lookalikes to stand in the line-up with the suspect. In large cities, it can be relatively easy to find a number of volunteers who resemble the suspect, but in smaller towns, where identity parades are admittedly rarer, it can be difficult to find eight people who look sufficiently like the suspect and who also are not known by the witness.
But the traditional formal identification parade ensures the rights of the suspect are respected: a suspect is not obliged to stand in a parade, and must give his or her consent. It’s not yet clear if a video system might affect those rights.
“Identity parades are a very important safeguard, and are recognised as such by courts, in cases that rely on identification,” says Michael Staines, a leading criminal lawyer. “The most important aspect is that a suspect’s solicitor is there, so they can make sure the process is fair and spot when the other ‘suspects’ in the line-up don’t closely resemble their client, for instance. The judge has to point out that honest people can make mistakes in identifying people, which originated with an Irish case, People vs Casey [1963], and parades are an important safeguard against those mistakes.”
Research in the US suggests about 60 per cent of wrongful convictions stem from errors of eyewitness identification, a problem identification parades help mitigate.
Another solicitor specialising in criminal law, Gráinne Malone, agrees with Staines about the importance of identity parades.
“I’d always advise the suspect to take part in the identity parade,” she says. “If they refuse to go on it the guards can hold what is known as an informal identity parade, where a suspect can be pointed out for identification in isolation, say walking down the street or coming out of the Garda station. For the witness I think they need proper identification suites, because it can be traumatic having to walk into a room and stand face to face with a suspect in a line-up.”
Malone stresses the benefit of witnesses actually being able to see a group of “suspects” in a line, comparing them in person. In the UK, concerns about the Viper system surrounded technical limitations, such as allowing the witness to see the suspects standing up, being able to judge weight or build, or identify individual characteristics such as tattoos or scars.
However, research into video parades at Goldsmiths College, London, found the “use of video produced fairer line-ups”, partly due to the larger selection of foils, statistically increasing the likelihood that they’re a good match for the suspect.
The details of the proposed video system are not yet clear, and conditions to ensure the fairness of the process, such as whether suspects’ solicitors will be involved in choosing foils, as happens in the UK, or if they can be present while witnesses view the clips, will be crucial in determining if its adoption here is a success.
Mistaken identity A movie staple
The Usual Suspects (1995)
It's a measure of the film's success that you can't think of a police line-up without thinking of
The Usual Suspects. But the bunch of criminals should have figured something was up the moment Gabriel Byrne and Kevin Spacey were put in the same line-up as Benicio del Toro and a generic Baldwin brother.
Aren't these people supposed to resemble each other? Ah well, in the days of video parades, it wouldn't happen anyway.
The Player (1992)
How can you not pick Tim Robbins out of a line-up? In Robert Altman's classic Hollywood satire, cops Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett desperately try to get a witness to pick Robbins's smug, and murderous, producer, Griffin Mill. Lovett, making up the numbers, gets picked instead.
The Line-up (1958)
This late-noir crime flick from director Don Siegel sees Eli Wallach as an unhinged hitman causing carnage in San Francisco. Based on a 1950s TV show of the same name, the film's actual line-up isn't that critical to the story.
Let Us Live (1939)
The police line-up goes Kafkaesque as Henry Fonda strolls on to a police line-up – it was more of a parade back then, evidently – only to be misidentified by a group of witnesses. Textbook cognitive bias, of course: it would never get past a court in this day and age, right?
Dragnet, Law and Order, Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blues, The Bill
Pretty much every TV police procedural show relies on the police line-up every so often: it's got built-in tension, a frightened witness, scheming lawyers, frustrated cops, the possibility of wrongful identification, all at work in one scene. The video equivalent will probably lack the same dramatic potential.
