How PACE Code D governs eyewitness identification — when a formal procedure is mandatory, how it must be run, and the consequences when the rules are broken.
Honest but mistaken eyewitnesses have produced some of the criminal law's most notorious wrongful convictions, which is why identification evidence is hedged with strict procedural controls. This chapter begins with the purpose of identification procedures, the role of the identification officer and the three conditions that make a formal procedure mandatory, before working through the Code D hierarchy and the detailed rules for video identification — foils, distinctive features and witness instructions. It then covers the safeguards protecting the suspect, from the recording of first descriptions to the right to legal advice and the police's options on refusal, along with the use of photographs where there is no suspect and the effect of a Code D breach under section 78. It closes with the quality of the identification itself: the ADVOKATE factors, the Turnbull warning, and what the judge must do where a poor-quality identification stands unsupported.
