In a police line up, where..

Question

in a criminal line-up -where the suspect appears with other look alikes- for a victim to identify the criminal, where or how are these look-alikes found and used in the line-up?

Answer 1

First, live line-ups are not done that often. When they are, the fillers may be inmates or officers. In photo line-ups, the fillers are almost always selected from the past jail booking photos, although it may be necessary to use other sources to get a good set, and it's perfectly okay to use Photoshop to provide a needed feature. I have in mind a case in which the suspect was cross-eyed. The fillers were altered to have crossed-eyes to make it a fair set.  

Answer 2

Live line ups are rarely done. I have never done a live line up or even seen one done. Photo line ups are done. Most departments have a computer that you can enter the characteristics of the suspect (hair color, race, s*x, etc.) and it pulls pictures of arrestees from the system. The computer will then insert the pictures into a line up randomly and the detective can accept or reject any picture. The computer will continue this process until the detective is satisfied.  

Answer 3

In my 25 years in Law Enforcement as a Criminal Investigator we normally used officers working in the station or individuals who volunteered their time to help the department. Now this is in a live lineup. In a photo lineup, investigators go through the books of photos or database and select photos that look like their suspect. They then place the five photos they selected along with the suspects photo and then present that lineup to the witness. Making a lineup is not an easy task. The lineup has to be real close to what the suspect looks like and sometimes that can be very hard to complete. Law Enforcement have to be very careful with lineups. Attorneys love to try and destroy them using all kinds of tactics.

Answer 4

The cops usually will hire actors from the screen actors guild. They also have to be given immunity in the particular crime in case the witness mistakenly selects one of the actors as the criminal.  

Answer 5

from local movie studios, the station request extras and if the officers on duty look alike they will be requested to valaunteer

Answer 6

They are sourced from the local area...they normally get a minimal fee for this. They ask for same age, hair color etc.  

Answer 7

A) These aren't "look-alikes" to try and fool a witness.

B) Movie's have made this look like it is all pretty seemless, they just cut to the shot of the guys walking in. In real life, it could take a day or two to set up a lineup. In which they get the guys from other busts, or from the holding cells or even volunteers.