In an eyewitness situation, most memory loss occurs within a matter of minutes. Significant information can be lost within the first 48 hours. Police need to move quickly to do interviews. Just like the interview process can corrupt memory, so can the creation of facial composites of a suspect. People do not remember faces one feature at a time, but holistically. A criminal investigation is most impacted by eyewitness memory during lineups. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Eyewitness Evidence: A Guide for Law Enforcement offers valuable suggestions for conducting lineups. If a simultaneous lineup is conducted (all photos shown at the same time), the victim picks the best of the people that are there. If victims are required to look at a sequential lineup, they have to pick who the perpetrator is, not who it isn’t. Additional suggestions include: (1) in addition to saying the offender might not be in the lineup, there should be an added explanation that the police department will continue to investigate the case whether or not someone is identified and (2) careful selection of filler photos so the suspect who may or may not be the perpetrator does not stand out. When a crime is committed, witnesses are generally exposed to a stranger, usually for a short amount of time and often there is fear or stress involved. These are things that do not improve memory. Eyewitness evidence is fragile, like other types of evidence which is why eyewitness evidence should and must be handled with care. If it is not handled carefully, memory can be easily contaminated when conducting interviews, when creating composites, and when doing lineups.