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Steve Chapman warns you not to assume decent results from police lineups.

Comments

Casey Serin | March 31, 2008, 7:43am | #

The higher-ups at the Chicago Police Department, who enforced this witness intimidation, are all gay men... not that there's anything wrong with that!!

Lamar | March 31, 2008, 9:21am | #

On the flip side, I witnessed an altercation between Cook County sheriff deputies at a bar in Schererville, IN. The deputies stalked and beat the crap out of some local meatheads.

When I went to the Schererville police station to do a photo lineup, every single picture looked exactly the same. They all vaguely looked like the Cook County cops, but damn if all those photos didn't look identical.

Episiarch | March 31, 2008, 9:37am | #

The double-blind implementation is very important. There's a reason why any reliable psychological study has to employ double-blind.

And that's just research. In the case of the police, people's futures are on the line.

Cracker's Boy | March 31, 2008, 9:57am | #

"not to assume decent results from police lineups"

You can just shorten that to "not to assume decent results from police".

CB

J sub D | March 31, 2008, 11:50am | #

Because an officer can consciously or unconsciously steer a witness.

Otherwise known as the Clever Hans phenomenon

A form of involuntary and unconscious cuing. The term refers to a horse (Kluge Hans, referred to in the literature as "Clever Hans") who responded to questions requiring mathematical calculations by tapping his hoof. If asked by his master, William Von Osten, what is the sum of 3 plus 2, the horse would tap his hoof five times.

See Facilitated Communication as well.