JEFFERSON CITY - Police would face tougher restrictions in using police lineups under a measure presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, Feb. 9.

The bill would impose six requirements which the sponsor said would help lower the chances of incorrect eyewitness identification.

The bill would require:

• Law enforcement must have written procedures regarding eyewitness identification procedures with biannual review.
• The administrator conducting the lineup not know the suspect's identity
• A confidence statement must be made from the witness when an identification is made
• All members in the lineup must generally resemble the suspect and no one stands out.
• Instructions that the perpetrator might not be in lineup
• Lastly, a prohibition on allowing more than one suspect to be present in a lineup.

"It's important that we have firm footing, firm procedures, uniform procedures, and just tie down the all the dots," said the bill's sponsor -- Sen. Joe Keaveny, D-St. Louis.

The bill was given support by the Midwest Innocent Project. The organization is an advocate for the releases of wrongfully convicted people in their five-state region. 

"Mistaken eyewitness identification is the single leading cause of wrongful conviction in this country," said a staff attorney for the organization, Rachel Webster. "The issue is not about bad policing, it's about the valubility of memory."

Among the two testifying against the bill was the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney.  Bob McCulloch argued the bill "does micromanage the process that it has to go through."

McCulloch claimed that some of the requirements in the bill were not plausible, such as the person conducting the line up be unaware of the actual suspect's identity.

The committee did not take immediate action on the measure.