identification parade

Noun

identification parade (plural identification parades)

1. A process by which a witness confirms the identity of a criminal suspect, by viewing the suspect together with other people who were not involved in the crime.
   • He had once in his early days dropped in with his Superintendent at an identification parade. It was not his case, and they were both there on other business, but they lingered in the background and watched while a man and a woman, separately, walked down the line of twelve nondescript men, looking...1951, Josephine Tey, chapter 2, in The Daughter of Time, London: Peter Davies, page 24
   • One of the ticket clerks at the Brahmpur Railway Station was going to be asked to try to pick Maan out at an identification parade in the jail. Under these circumstances, he could not let Maan’s head be shaved.1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 17.26, pp. 1330-1331

   Synonyms:

   identity parade, lineup, police lineup