House gives OK to bill mandating how cops conduct photo lineups

The photo lineup, where a victim is asked to point out the “perp” is a staple of crime dramas on television and in the movies.

But photo lineups in real life are not as simple as those portrayed on the big or little screen. When not done carefully, the results can be thrown out of court — or used to convict an innocent person.

New rules on how law enforcement would need to conduct photo lineups are spelled out in HF627, sponsored by Rep. Dave Pinto (DFL-St. Paul). The bill was passed 133-1 by the House Tuesday and sent to the Senate, where Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria) is the sponsor.

“It is critical to ensure that the identification [in a photo lineup] is as accurate as possible,” Pinto said. “The practices that are outlined in this bill will provide that assurance for us,” adding that they are based on best practices that have been developed nationally and internationally.

Specifically, the bill would require the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop a model policy for eyewitness identification. The board is responsible for licensing the more than 10,500 active law enforcement officers in the state.

The bill specifies four photo lineup requirements, which are based on recommendations in a 2014 report by the National Academy of Sciences:

• the person administering a lineup be unaware of the suspect or unaware of which lineup member is being viewed;
• the witness be given introductory instructions including the statement that the perpetrator may or may not be in the lineup;
• the lineup include “fillers” that match the description of the suspect; and
• the witness give a statement that articulates the level of confidence in the identification.

A fifth recommendation from the National Academy of Sciences report, that there should be a video recording of the identification process, is not included.

Rep. Brian Johnson (R-Cambridge) has one reservation with the bill, that the person administering a lineup be unaware of the suspect or be unaware of which lineup member is being viewed.

Johnson, a retired law enforcement officer, said agencies with only a handful of officers would have difficulty meeting that mandate because every officer in the agency would be familiar with a particular case and would know which photo is depicting the suspect.

Pinto assured Johnson that techniques have been developed specifically to overcome that problem, and that those techniques would even work “quite well for a one-person department.”

Law enforcement agencies statewide would need to adopt standards developed by the POST board by Feb. 1, 2021.