Bill > S1237

This bill mandates that law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts, including the State Police, MBTA Transit Police, and city/town police departments serving at least 2,000 residents, must adopt a written policy for eyewitness identification that aligns with a model policy developed by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and the Massachusetts State Police, and approved by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS). This model policy, designed to improve accuracy based on scientific evidence, includes several key provisions: show-up identifications (where a witness is shown a single suspect) must occur within two hours of the witness observing the offender; multiple identification procedures involving the same suspect and witness are prohibited; lineups or photo arrays must be conducted by an administrator who is unaware of the suspect's identity or by a method that prevents them from knowing which person or photo is the suspect; lineups must include at least four fillers (non-suspects) and photo arrays must include at least five fillers, all of whom should resemble the suspect's description and not stand out; witnesses must be informed that the perpetrator may or may not be present and that the administrator doesn't know who the suspect is; and witnesses must articulate their certainty in their identification in their own words, which will be documented verbatim. These policies must be submitted to EOPSS for approval, and the model policy will be reviewed every two years to ensure it remains consistent with relevant jury instructions from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.