Southern Miss Professor assists Houston Police with eyewitness research | People

Dr. Thomas Payne, associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at The University of Southern Mississippi, has consulted with the Houston (Texas) Police Department on groundbreaking research into the best methods for conducting eyewitness lineups.

Payne spent the better part of the previous year working with Sgt. Stephen Morrison to design a survey instrument that would facilitate the collection of facts and demographics related to the types of lineups used by police detectives. The objective is to ensure that the Houston Police Department employs the most impartial lineup procedure possible for eyewitness identification.

“No one wants to see any person wrongfully convicted,” said Morrison. “Over the past years there has been an effort to create public policy on how police investigators collect eyewitness evidence, with the belief that some of the error occurs in the method of collecting eyewitness evidence. The Houston Police is seeking to find a ‘best practice’ solution from this research.”

For more on this article, click HERE to go to the USM website.