Eyewitness Evidence: Will the United StatesGuide for Law EnforcementMake Any Difference?

Abstract

The publication in the United States of Eyewitness Identification: A Guide for Law Enforcement Officers (TWGEYEE, 1999) is a significant development in seeking to deal with miscarriages of justice, based on erroneous identification, in all 50 states of the Union and at a Federal level. However, its development barely acknowledges the existence of more than 40 years of case law and legislation in England and Wales. In addition, the contents of the Guide are advisory only and failure to comply with them carries no sanction. This article compares the content of the Guide with the mostly mandatory requirements of English law. It argues that, in the face of some of the negative aspects of police culture and the problems associated with the external imposition of controls on policing, the Guide is not likely to be either accepted, or successful. In addition, it is argued that the parochialism of an approach that ignores both research and efforts and extant administrative controls in other comparable jurisdictions is both unwise and unscholarly.