Examining how lineup practices of Canadian and U.S. police officers adhere to their national best practice recommendations

Abstract

Canadian (N = 117) and U.S. (N = 167) police officers completed a survey about their lineup construction and administration practices. We compared their responses to national policy recommendations in both countries, which had five similar and four different recommendations. We expected that if officers' lineup procedures corresponded with policy recommendations, the countries would have similar procedures when recommendations were similar, but different procedures in line with their respective policies when recommendations were different. We generally found the predicted pattern of results. Findings were especially striking when the policies differed. Some procedures were largely in line with policy recommendations (e.g., double-blind testing), others corresponded to some extent (e.g., sequential lineups), and others were largely not followed (e.g., providing instruction that it is as important to exonerate the innocent as it is to convict the guilty). We cautiously interpret these findings as demonstrating that policy has some influence on procedures. However, even though our hypotheses were generally supported, there was considerable variation in procedures that did not correspond with policy recommendations. Our findings illustrate the importance of assessing user reactions to policy recommendations and examining barriers to policy implementation.