What is the relevance of integrity with regard to law enforcement and eyewitness identification?  According to the Merriam- Webster Dictionary online, the word integrity means “a firm adherence to a code especially of moral or artistic values”.  This terms, as it pertains to law enforcement by way of police departments, is critical in the continual process of optimizing eyewitness identification in criminal cases.  It is of extreme importance that integrity be upheld in this facet of crime prevention and punishment because the mere act of identifying criminals is a difficult and tedious process.  As the protocols for identifying criminals improves with technological advancements and psychological training, the likelihood to punish those who actually commit crimes is heightened, slowly doing away with the imprisonment of men and women who are falsely identified in police lineups.

What does it mean to do the right thing according to duty as opposed to focusing simply on consequences?  This simply means being prudent and accurate in the process of determining  and capturing the correct assailant, as opposed to seeking to land a “criminal” behind bars.  A great many reforms have been created and implemented to ensure this reality.  In the wake of  large numbers of fallacies being exposed in the process of identifying criminals, along with equally large numbers of exonerated inmates on the basis of these fallacies, the paradigm and initiative of the police force must conform in order to effectively protect the well being of American citizens and ignite trust for those within the law enforcement system.  According to the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University’s publication called Reevaluating Lineups (2011),  “In 2001, New Jersey became the first state to officially adopt the reforms recommended by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), including eye-witness instructions, proper lineup composition, confidence statements and documenting the identification procedure. In addition, New Jersey’s Attorney General mandated the use of blind administration and sequential  presentation  of lineup members.”

What would a lack of integrity be like in the profession of law enforcement in the area of eye witness identification?  This is best documented in the numerous cases in which the criminal justice system failed members of society.  In Texas, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved a bill, by unanimous decision, in which “police departments would have to adopt uniform standards for eyewitness identification.”(The StandDown Texas Project).  This takes place after 42 exonerations in Texas, after 38 of the inmates had been imprisoned due to false eyewitness identification.  The integrity of the the nation’s police departments and criminal justice system as a whole are minimized as innocent  people are locked away behind bars for crimes that they did not commit and were never proven to have commited.  As of 2000, 70 people had been exonerated from North American prisons for crimes that they they had no part of, including Herman Atkins, who was falsely accused of rape and served almost twelve of a forty year sentence in Fresno, California.  Faulty DNA testing and mistaken eyewitness identification robbed this man of years that should have been spent pursuing a career and enhancing his relationships with his family.  (Death Penalty Focus).  As it pertains to improved standards and systems for identifying criminals in cases such as these, it is integral to society that ethical decisions and more meticulous research be exercised.  Strict adherence to indifference and neutrality in belief systems about race, religion and sexual preference are also some of the leading codes of order that must be displayed, as the lack of these in law enforcement are some of the common causes of false witness identification.

As technology continues to advance at quantum speed and the the focus on accuracy in eyewitness identification becomes more efficient, ethically and morally, the probability of punishing a innocent human being for crimes that they have no ownership of will be lessened.  The ability to focus on intricate research data and evidential facts of a crime of any magnitude is the mark of integrity in any professional who seeks to promote justice and fairness in a the system that is built to serve and protect.

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