Interview and Interrogation

2006-08-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Interview and Interrogation - Who Needs It?

Traditionally, the “art” of interview and interrogation (and it is an art as much as a science) has been seen as the province of law enforcement and military officers.

Ironically, the rest of society, outside of law enforcement, also has a great need to properly interview people in ways that maximize effectiveness.

Imagine how it feels to know if someone is lying to you.

Put yourself in the role of:
• Parent
• School counselor
• Employer
• Human Resources Officer
• Spouse
• Physician
• Attorney
• Investigative reporter
• And the list goes on, and on, and on…etc.

Why isn’t this training given to everyone?

In virtually every modern school, agency or business, much care and consideration is given to the allocation of training, especially that training which requires both the expenditure of time and money.

In almost every situation, different segments of the agency (school, business or organization) have had to compete in a sense for their share of the almighty training dollar budget.

Training is generally expensive and takes people away from their primary jobs. Think about it: when you are gone on a training day, not only does your employer bear the costs associated with the training itself, but must also:
• Get you there (transportation)
• Pay you to stay there (hotels)
• Pay your meals while you are training
• Pay for your return trip

Not only that, but your employer also loses your salary for the time you are away attending training!

As a result, it is incumbent upon agency administrators to prioritize the available training money and to select suitable training to maximize effectiveness.

Administrators don’t want to send everyone to training, so they end up sending those individuals who seem to “need” it the most.

Typically, people who investigate situations tend to be the only ones who receive investigative interview training, when an objective analysis of virtually every supervisory job description would indicate that this would be a great topic for every supervisor.

Consider the absolute certainty that we will have to interact with people during each and every workday.

Shouldn’t we know how to talk with people, to gather useful information from them and to evaluate the accuracy (and truthfulness) of that information?

The interviewing methods presented here are not based totally on theory, but rather upon practical application.

These techniques are being successfully used daily, are very easy to learn and do not require reference texts to be carried in the field.

In this blog, we will look at what is wrong (or at least ineffective) with typical interview techniques, what in the past has led us to use techniques that don't work, what does work and how to develop techniques that will dramatically increase our success rates in dealing with people and will be of great value in clarifying statements obtained from victims and witnesses.

There will be some psychology and physiology presented, as both lay a foundation for the working mechanisms of any successful interview and interrogation system.

Although these basic psychological and physiological concepts are included so that you know why these concepts work, they are not necessary to learn to effectively use the procedures described herein.

Quite simply, the principles are included because some people like to know why something works, some people like to be shown how it works and some people won't be convinced until they use the system personally.

The Focused Interviewing system was originally developed for law enforcement personnel to use in their daily investigation of crime. Indeed, thousands of officers have been trained in Focused Interviewing and it works very well in the law enforcement setting.

A number of years ago, I realized that many others needed to know how to interview people in a systematic way which achieved the same desired goal: getting to the truth.

This system is very intuitive, easy to use and doesn’t require any memorization of “steps” or mandatory sequences. Therefore, it is more adaptable to the non-law enforcement world than are more structured, rigid interviewing systems.

Additionally, the Focused Interviewing system allows you to interview someone with whom you have a continuing relationship, because you will learn to interview in a calm, likeable, non-threatening manner.

Although there are some obvious differences between law enforcement interviews and non-law enforcement interviews, these differences lie chiefly in the subject matter.

The techniques, goals and methods are remarkably similar, whether you are an employer interviewing an employee or a homicide cop interviewing a suspect.

For our purposes here, we will refer to this process as an investigative interview.

Interview and Interrogation

Interview and Interrogation

2006-08-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog about interrogation techniques, interviewing, interview techniques, interview and interrogation.

Here you will learn valuable interrogation methods, styles, techniques and training.

Primarily of interest to law enforcement, security, corrections, military and other personnel who are interested in the art of interview and interrogation.