Robert Weston of the South Bronx makes a living providing “fillers” or taking part in police lineups and for each lineup he fills, he earns $10.
Weston said he has never failed to produce lineups when asked, no matter what time of night. But these days, the work has slowed down.
“There’s not enough crime now,” Mr. Weston told NY Times. “But it comes and goes, and there’ll always going to be knuckleheads stealing phones.”
The practice, however, is under fresh legal scrutiny in light of new findings that suggested mistaken identifications in lineups are a leading cause of wrongful convictions, and that witnesses can be steered toward selecting the suspect arrested by the police.