A Case of Mistaken Identity

Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify suspects in criminal investigations. Those identifications are wrong about a third of the time, a pile of studies suggest. In November, the Supreme Court will return to the question of what the Constitution has to say about the use of eyewitness evidence. The last time the court took a hard look at the question was in 1977. Since then, the scientific understanding of human memory has been transformed.

34 Years Later, Supreme Court Will Revisit Eyewitness IDs
This story really hit home for me. Just recently I was "misidentified" by the police. One day back in May, I was out for my usual walk after work along my usual route. When I reached a certain point I was greeting by a 'friendly' cop. Yes he really was friendly and he engaged me in conversation. I had a sinking feeling this was not a friendly conversation when he asked for my ID which I gladly handed over. He explained that I fit the 'general description' of a perv whom a lady nearby had complained of stalking her little girl. I was wearing a blue jacket and apparently this person was too and was in my age group. And this occurred in a place that was in the general area I had been walking from.

It took about 15 minutes for them to round up the woman to have a look at me from afar (they had her in a police car parked across the street and due to the tinted glass, I could not see in but she could see me). The officers were in communications with their radios and immediately told me I could go once she got a look at me and knew right away that I was not the perv stalking her daughter.

I was free to go, but was a very long 15 minutes for me. Seemed like hours and it was very upsetting. All kinds of things were going through my mind during that 15 minutes. I knew I was not who they were looking for; I could take comfort in that. But what if this perv looked very similar to me? Similar enough for a mistaken identification by the woman reporting it. I was alone and could not prove that I was not where this took place because it was in the close vicinity. What if they hauled me in based on this woman's identification? What if I had to spend the night in jail? What if what if....My fate rested in this woman's ability to properly identify the perv.

During the 15 minute ordeal I did learn a bit more about this perv by listening to the radio chatter on the police radio and also from a passer-by who also saw the guy. The perv in question sounds like a dirty homeless man; probably drunk and/or mentally ill. And very dirty with a full beard. I only had a goatee. So just like that, it was over. But it could have gone the other way too.

And that's why I took notice of this article when it appeared in the news. It really hit home and I hope the Supremes take a good hard look at eyewitness evidence and how it is used. Particularly with respect to identifying someone by looks and memory. It was a happy ending for me and I parted ways with the cops with smiles and good wishes. But for people who are arrested and even convicted based on a mistaken identification, I hope this is explored more.

PS: I couldn't help but think to myself that the cops frittered away a good 15 minutes on me -- 15 minutes that the real perv probably used to get away.