As of July 1, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services has promulgated new model policies regarding eyewitness identification, including photo line-ups, following a study that was done showing how many mistaken IDs there are. By statute, all police departments are required to have a policy regarding both live and photo line-ups 19.2-390.02, though the DCJS study found that several departments did not.
here’s the link to the new policies:
http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/cple/sampleDirectives/manual/2-39.docx
and the study, along with a couple of articles:
http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/research/documents/12LawEnforceLineup.pdf
http://norfolkvabeach.com/police-photo-lineups-fail-new-state-policy.html
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/07/police-photo-lineups-fail-new-state-policy
h/t Valerie L’Herrou
Assistant Public Defender
Charlottesville Office of the Public Defender