EYEWITNESSES IDENTIFICATION

Several Techniques for Eyewitnesses Identification

When the crime events happened, there are always the eyewitnesses who could be the victim or the other people who were in the crime scene. Interrogator found the clue of crime event from the eyewitness too. The eyewitnesses could know the criminal, so their opinions are worthy. Besides that, several eyewitnesses could not remember the detail of the event clearly. It happened because humans usually just used her/his short term memory and the event might be happened on small amount of time. Besides, if the event is traumatic for the eyewitnesses, they usually could not remember clearly, indeed they had the wrong representation of the event. Several eyewitnesses took out their defense mechanism when they had to remember the traumatic crime event.

Simultaneous Strategy (The Usual Suspect movie)

The interrogators apply several techniques for an eyewitness to acknowledge the suspect. The first technique titled simultaneous, in which the interrogators show several photos of people at one time in front of the eyewitness. The eyewitnesses choose the person who is the suspect from those options that put side by side. The other technique named sequential line-up in which the interrogator just shows one photo or person at one time. The eyewitnesses should tell them if they see the photo or person who might be the perpetrator. If the person is not the perpetrator, the interrogator would be showed the next photo or people. The differences between those two techniques are simple; the police could show all of the suspects at one time or put the suspect one by one to the eyewitnesses.

Sequential Line-Up Strategy

Those techniques are supported by the other techniques by the interrogator, for instance, they usually give some of the leading or suggestive comments to the eyewitness. If the police said to the eyewitnesses that the perpetrator is one in the line-up, they certainly pick one of them even though they do not confident about their choice. They felt that they should pick one of the perpetrators even though they know the real suspect is not in the line-up. It happened because the eyewitnesses easily trust to the police than their memory themselves. Moreover, the police could say either nothing or the suspect might be not in the line-up. The eyewitnesses become more honest with their choice. If they do not identify the suspect is one of the might-be suspects, they tend to say honestly to the police. They more rely on their memory and self-opinion because the police do not interfere with what they believe.