Angleterre
Verified LE & Sr Investigating Officer, England
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2017
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Even the most honest, credible and sincere witnesses can be mistaken about their facts.
I witnessed a deadly car accident. I was a witness in a civil trial, in a lawsuit over the death.
I was right behind the car, in which the passenger died. We were in the left lane at a busy intersection, on the Pacific Coast Highway, waiting for breaks in traffic, to turn left. The car in front of me turned left right in front of a fast moving car, and was T-boned feet away from me. It was so frightening.
I saw it all and was totally honest with everything I saw. I was interviewed on scene, and then went to a deposition and testified in court.
I was absolutely certain that everything happened the way I saw it and remembered it. But I was shocked when I saw the surveillance footage from the bank on the corner---and a couple of things were not as I remembered them. And I was so certain about what I 'thought' I remembered.
This is spot on and I totally agree ( although I’m sorry that you had to go through this).
When I was at Detective training school we were on the syllabus of identification and recognition.
It was around 1130 in the morning and all of a sudden three men burst into the classroom, all with guns and fired them. They then got one of the trainers and dragged him out of the room.
Obviously it was a simulation exercise and the ‘abducted ‘ trainer knew this . All the cameras were rigged up in the classroom. Then as trainee Detectives ( but having served as Police Officers on the street for a minimum 5 years ), we were asked to write a witness statement as to what happened, putting in as much descriptive detail as possible.
Then armed with our individual statement , the camera was played back to us all. It was amazing what some in the classroom thought that they saw ( but they hadn’t because the camera proved otherwise). So my point echoes that of Katydid - we at that time were serving Police Officers trained to observe more than your average citizens and yet we got things wrong, confused etc
And when you are in a highly charged emotional state with the adrenaline pumping through fear and not knowing what’s happening and being so out of your comfort zone, accounts can be given that are simply not accurate. Not because of someone lying, but because they thought what they recalled was what happened but it wasn’t.
If that makes sense.
With the best will in the world, we can all get details mixed up / confused and/or downright wrong but without malice intended. By the way they weren’t real guns !