This page provides content for our presentation at the 3rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing in Cincinnati, OH in May 2019. Below you can find links to our presentation and articles/documents referenced within.
Ross, S. J., & Janes, N. (May 2019). Identifying effective approaches to implementing evidence-based practices for conducting eyewitness identification procedures in Washington State. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, Cincinnati, OH
Presentation Materials
Additional Resources
Washington State Eyewitness Policy Committee - Minimum Standards & Field Aids/Checklists/Forms
The Washington State Eyewitness Policy Committee formed in 2013 with the purpose of studying, identifying, and recommending “best practices” for conducting eyewitness identification procedures in addition to developing effective strategies for translating these procedures from policy to practice. The work of this committee resulted in the production of recommended “minimum standards” for collecting eyewitness evidence and the development of field aids and checklists/forms intended to assist law enforcement agents with collecting and documenting this evidence in manners consistent with these recommended practices. The document linked above provides an overview of the WSEPC approach, the recommended “minimum standards”, and the field aids and checklists/forms that were developed.
“Fill-able” versions of these checklists/forms are available below (NOTE: these documents will not preview in a web browser - they will need to be opened in Adobe Acrobat):
Relying on the work of the WSEPC, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs adopted a model policy on eyewitness identification procedures. This model policy provides evidence-based guidelines and “minimum standards” for collecting eyewitness evidence throughout Washington State. The document linked above is WASPC’s model policy.
WA Senate Bill 5714 was passed in May 2019 in an effort to improve the reliability of eyewitness and informant evidence collected in criminal investigations. Rather than employing a traditional “legislative mandate” approach in which state legislatures pass laws requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt specific practices/policies for collecting eyewitness evidence, this bill promotes the collaborative “bottom-up” approach for employing evidence-based practices that began with the development of the WSEPC. In doing so, SB 5714 requires the development of an interdisciplinary work group consisting of law enforcement agents and researchers (among others) which is tasked with:
Producing statewide model guidelines for the collection of eyewitness evidence consistent with the WASPC model policy
Developing a training program for the collection and documentation of eyewitness evidence
Designing a research plan to assess the effectiveness of this training program