Appearing in a police line up?

Telby01

I've been in a few police line-ups....but never been paid for it

DaveTheGeordie

sorbet87 wrote: »

Does anyone know how to get into this area? obviously to appear as a 'red herring' or extra option in the line. Do they select only from those with criminal backgrounds or from the general public?

Would be very interested to hear from anyone who has done it.

I used to do this regularly for a few years. I used to go to the one in byker, in Newcastle. We used to get £10 per parade. £5 more if delayed past 45 minutes. Sometimes more again if you had to go to another police station (pretty funny being carted off in a police van) Some days you would have 3 a day. £30 legal cash in hand whilst you've taken a days work holiday and getting paid for that too was awesome at the time.

A criminal record isn't mandatory, though many of the types hanging around ID parades probably do have them. :rotfl: A lot of the time the people paid to stand in the line up would be friends with the person accused. A lot of time 'the accused' would casually blurt out that they were there because they'd been nicking garden tools.

And no, nothing happens if you get picked out ( a lot of people used to ask that).;)

When I used to go, they would be open randomly from 8:00 to 7pm. They might not have been open every hour. Sometimes they probably were. For each parade, legally at the time they had to have 13 people minimum. 10 for the line up (might have been 11...10 or 11). 3 extras minimum, generally upto 15 or 16. Say that's £150 paid out a time. A parade each hour, all day. It adds up to a lot.

If you can get into them they are nice extra pocket money. Sometimes a good laugh too when someone lets out a massive rippler among the mid-parade silence, when everyone is supposed to be stoic, and emotionless. Though I always took it seriously and contained myself.

If your local borough police force is smart though, I would imagine they would have upgraded to PC/electronic 'line ups' by now. It's all dried out so far as I am aware, in Newcastle. They now use (or at least offer) a computer based face image multiple choice. Obviously it's a way of saving previously huge amounts of money. The last time I worked for them I was paid £20 to have my photo taken.

Worth looking into though. It might depend on your area. Maybe they still offer the choice of a physical line up if people request it. I don't know. I might look into seeing if they still actually ever do them around here.

kizkiz

As a serving police officer I can confirm that the met (and I rather suspect, every force) use computers now
Description goes in, and pics of random scrotes appear for the witness to view.
No real people involved in person at any point