THE NEW ERROR COMPENSATION SEARCH TECHNIQUE IS BASED ON A METHOD WHICH INVOLVES (1) ASSIGNING POINTS TO DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS SO THAT UNUSUAL CHARACTERISTICS RECEIVE HIGHER POINT VALUES (FREQUENCY-WEIGHTING), (2) ASSIGNING POINTS TO CHARACTERISTICS RELATED TO THOSE IN THE WITNESS DESCRIPTIONS, AND (3) ASSIGNING AN OVERALL SCORE TO EACH RECORD FROM THE DESCRIPTION-METHOD FILE WHICH IS QUESTIONED. FOR EXAMPLE, A WITNESS DESCRIBES A TATTO ON AN OFFENDER'S LEFT HAND. THIS UNUSUAL DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTIC RECEIVES A HIGHER POINT VALUE THAN, FOR INSTANCE, ESTIMATED AGE. HOWEVER, TO COMPENSATE FOR ERRORS IN THE WITNESS' DESCRIPTION OF THE TATTOO, THE RELATED CHARACTERISTICS OF 'TATTOO ON RIGHT HAND,' 'TATTOO ON LEFT ARM,' AND 'SCAR ON LEFT HAND' ARE ALSO ASSIGNED POINT VALUES, AND RECORDS INCLUDING THESE RELATED CHARACTERISTICS RECEIVE POINTS AND ARE INCLUDED IN THE SUSPECT GROUP. THE FINAL LIST OF SUSPECTS WILL BE ARRANGED SO THAT THOSE WITH THE HIGHEST SCORES APPEAR EARLY ON THE LIST. EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT THE NEW STRATEGY MAY BE EFFECTIVE, BUT FURTHER STUDIES ARE SUGGESTED. SEVEN REFERENCES, ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES, TABLES, AND GRAPHS ARE PROVIDED.