Like many other law enforcement officials in Western Pennsylvania, Waynesburg Police Chief Timothy Hawfield didn't know about federal recommendations for how to avoid false eyewitness identifications.

	SIGHT UNSEEN SECOND OF A SERIES
	Pat Sullivan, Associated Press New York's Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck Click photo for larger image. Related coverage Questionable identifications sent 2 to jail Survey of police finds key advice is ignored The Innocence Institute Day One: Witnesses' eyes can ofttimes deceive Tomorrow: A questionable photo lineup helps convict a local man

More importantly, he didn't agree with them.

In particular, Hawfield disliked the suggestion some experts have made that the officer conducting a photo lineup of possible suspects shouldn't be involved in the investigation, to avoid influencing a witness' selection.

"I don't care about U.S. Department of Justice guidelines," he said. "We don't have anyone who is objective here."

In not knowing about the guidelines and not wanting to follow them, Hawfield was typical of most police chiefs in the region surveyed and interviewed by the Innocence Institute of Point Park University, a joint venture with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette where students investigate allegations of wrongful convictions.

One local chief said he had never heard of having a written policy on conducting photo lineups. Another chief said his department would resist changes. Several chiefs said they do things the exact opposite way from what is suggested by the guidelines.

But there were some notable exceptions.

Pittsburgh police also didn't know about the guidelines until recently, but now Deputy Chief William Mullen wants the largest department in Western Pennsylvania to be a leader in adopting the practices endorsed by experts.

He sees them as not only as sound police policy, but another layer of checks and balances ensuring that police prosecute the right criminal.

"God forbid that we would put an innocent person in jail because of a less than confident eyewitness, and then, we would be allowing a guilty person to go out and commit more crimes," he said.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala agreed with that sentiment, and said he is willing to look into recommending certain eyewitness i.d. reforms to police chiefs in the county.

"It would be a healthy thing for the justice system. The worst thing in the world is if you have the wrong guy; that's not what [a prosecutor's role] is all about," Zappala said.

Zappala noted that more police in the county are using a computerized database that allows police to put together fairer photo lineups by ensuring that the suspect's picture resembles that of other photos in the lineup.

Mullen and Zappala, however, are two of only a handful of police officials and prosecutors in Pennsylvania who will even consider the eyewitness reforms.

From the leader of the state district attorneys' group to officials who train and accredit police officers, there was little belief among the state's law enforcement officials that false eyewitness identification is a major problem.

But a growing body of case law says otherwise. It proves eyewitnesses have falsely identified and helped convict innocent people, while letting the guilty go free.

Mistaken eyewitness identifications helped convict nearly 80 percent of the 157 people nationwide who eventually were exonerated through DNA testing carried out by the New York-based Innocence Project. Other studies also have shown false eyewitness i.d.'s have led to unjust convictions.

Reforming police procedures

Psychological experts on witness issues have found that inadequate, outmoded police procedures are a major part of the problem.

The Justice Department issued guidelines on improving police practices in 1999, but never followed up by promoting them or training police in their use.

The former district attorney of Lackawanna County, Michael Barrasse, was one of the dozens of law enforcement officials and social scientists who helped craft the Justice Department guidelines. But Barrasse, now a Common Pleas Court judge, said the department failed to keep its promise to fund a national effort to train police in using them.

Barrasse said he was skeptical at first that the reforms might be based on "voodoo science," but later concluded that the extensive research showing how unreliable many witness accounts are matched his own experiences as a district attorney.

"You realize many of these things are problems," he said, adding that every department in the state should be taking the open-minded approach of the Pittsburgh police.

Among other things, the federal guidelines recommend that police not tell witnesses anything about a suspect before they show them photos or people in a live lineup; that they make sure lineup photos are not too different from each other; and that if witnesses pick out a suspect's picture, they record how confident they are before telling them whether they have chosen the person police suspect.

In recent years, law enforcement officials from Virginia to the San Francisco Bay area have slowly discovered and embraced the recommendations on their own, but they're largely unknown and underutilized in Pennsylvania.

Mullen and a handful of other law enforcement officials in Western Pennsylvania are starting to recognize the problem. Lawrence County District Attorney Matthew Mangino said he's been urging local police departments to consider adopting some of the guidelines.

He particularly favors the recommendations that officers who conduct a photo lineup should document how confident a witness is after he has picked out a suspect's photo, and that investigators should not immediately tell witnesses that they correctly identified a suspect.

Both of those guidelines are designed to make sure the witness is relying on his own memory in making an identification.

"These things don't seem to be a burden, don't seem to be unreasonable," Mangino said.

New Jersey leads way

In 2001, New Jersey became the first state not only to adopt the guidelines, but use additional techniques promoted by psychologists to reduce false identifications.

Police departments there use investigators who have no knowledge of the suspect's identity to conduct photo lineups, preventing possible bias. Officers also show photos to witnesses one at a time, rather than the traditional all-at-once approach, to prevent "comparison shopping" by uncertain witnesses.

Last year, the North Carolina Actual Innocence Commission started advocating the same methods be used by its state's police departments. The commission coordinates the state's innocence projects and promotes reforms.

In March, the Virginia State Crime Commission announced it will ask police there to use similar techniques. And law enforcement officials in a handful of major cities, including Boston, Chicago, and Minneapolis, are also implementing the changes.

In Pennsylvania, the story is much different.

An official with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office said the policy is "under review," but the president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association said he doesn't consider false identifications to be a major problem.

Merle "Skip" Ebert, district attorney of Cumberland County, said he thinks some of the proposed changes are being driven by defense attorneys and will hinder law enforcement.

"You can make it impossible for somebody to pick anyone out of a lineup," he said.

He also made note of the fact that law enforcement officials in Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Jersey are among those who have reformed i.d. procedures.

"It's just strange that they're all in these liberal states," he said.

Barry Scheck, head of the New York-based Innocence Project and a DNA expert best known for his work as part of the O.J. Simpson defense team, points to the examples of North Carolina and Virginia -- not exactly bastions of left-wing ideology -- as showing the recommendations are good police practices that can be adopted anywhere.

But the issue is not compelling for the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.

The association established an accreditation program in 2001 requiring departments to meet standards on searches and other procedures.

The organization, which has accredited 25 agencies and enrolled another 200 in its program, doesn't have any requirements for eyewitness identification methods, said Richard Hammon, agency coordinator.

"That is just not up on the priority list as far as what is causing police department problems," he said.

One guideline that many local police chiefs disagreed with is the one that says detectives should avoid talking to witnesses about a suspect until after they've documented how confident the witness is in choosing a photo or identifying someone in a live lineup.

Experts say positive feedback -- like detectives saying "you got 'em!" or clapping their hands -- risks boosting a witness's confidence in his choice beyond what it originally was.

Some want to reward witness

But Aliquippa Police Chief Ralph Pallante spoke for many when he said, "the witness is taking a big step forward to be a witness. I think there has to be some feedback to feel that they did a good job." Aliquippa detectives sometimes even give other facts to uncertain witnesses "to give them a stronger feeling about the identification," Pallante said.

Mullen said Pittsburgh detectives tell a witness the suspect may or may not be in the photo lineup, but after someone picks the suspect, they do tell them they have chosen the person police are interested in.

"It's not like we are throwing confetti into the air and we don't have a band come in. We just want them to know what they are going to face in hearings and trial so they won't break down on the witness stand."

Despite the many negative reactions to the recommendations, some state lawmakers said they're open to the reforms.

Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he's willing to consider legislative changes because he has seen instances in which the courts have tossed out cases because of bad eyewitness i.d. procedures.

"Eyewitness identification is not necessarily as reliable as we thought," said Greenleaf, a former assistant district attorney.

Rep. Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, a member of House Judiciary Committee, said he's examining the issue because his experience as both a prosecutor and public defender has shown him the potential for police to lead a witness to make a false identification.

"If the cops come up with a bad case, it doesn't help anyone," he said.

Scheck is pushing for the use of federal guidelines because "it's good police work. I have found that those leading the charge [in other states] are prosecutors and police who have experienced problems in cases because of faulty eyewitness identification procedures and realize these things work," he said.

Experts like Scheck say that what most police departments need first is a set of written guidelines that everyone will follow on the best way to conduct eyewitness identifications.

In Pittsburgh, detectives have relied on an unwritten policy that doesn't ensure uniformity in the way officers conduct photo identifications. That causes wide differences in everything from the way the line-ups are assembled to the feedback an officer provides a witness after a positive identification is made.

That's one reason why Mullen, the deputy chief, says he is putting together a written witness policy for review by the city's chief.

Some resist lineup changes

As Waynesburg chief Hawfield's reaction shows, one of the most controversial suggestions involves putting a person with no knowledge of the investigation in charge of photo lineups to avoid any suggestions to the witness on who to pick.

In New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia, law enforcement agencies try to use an investigator who isn't aware of the suspect. Pittsburgh city police don't do that now unless a shift change or other scheduling issue requires someone other than the investigator to conduct the lineup.

In some smaller jurisdictions around the nation, arrangements are made among neighboring departments to trade officers when necessary to put the lineups together.

Hawfield can't see the sense of that, though. "I have never heard of that before. Why would someone put together the lineup [who] isn't involved?" he said.

Other departments resist that change and other recommendations because they believe it raises questions about the integrity of their officers.

"I trust my officers," said George Polnar, Monroeville police chief. "I don't think that they are going to do something that improper or wrong for the investigation."

But Barrasse, the Lackawanna County judge, said police are going to have to face the fact that the cat is out of the bag with the Justice Department guidelines.

Police departments should take the initiative to implement the guidelines before a savvy defense attorney uses them to dismantle one of their cases, he said, or someone who was wrongfully convicted uses the guidelines to sue their department.

"If they start waiting for the feds to drive the train," he said, "it's never going to happen ... "