In a new report released on December 3, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) called for police depart­ments to adopt new guide­lines to reduce the num­ber of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. The chiefs’ rec­om­men­da­tions include reforms of line­up pro­ce­dures, video­tap­ing of wit­ness inter­views, and for­mal­iz­ing the review of inno­cence claims. The IACP worked with the Justice Department and the Innocence Project to iden­ti­fy ways to reduce poten­tial sources of error and bias. Walter A. McNiel, police chief of Quincy, Florida, and past pres­i­dent of IACP, said, ​“At the end of the day, the goal is to reduce the num­ber of per­sons who are wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. What we are try­ing to say in this report is, it’s worth it for all of us, par­tic­u­lar­ly law enforce­ment, to con­tin­ue to eval­u­ate, slow down, and get the right per­son.” The rec­om­men­da­tions take into account research that has found eye­wit­ness error in the major­i­ty of cas­es lat­er over­turned by DNA evi­dence. (Eyewitness error is also a lead­ing cause of wrong­ful con­vic­tions in death penalty cases.)

(S. Hsu, ​“Police chiefs lead effort to pre­vent wrong­ful con­vic­tions by alter­ing inves­tiga­tive prac­tices,” Washington Post, December 2, 2013). See Innocence and New Voices. Since 1973, 143 defen­dants have been exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row.

Citation Guide