Techniques
for Improving Street and Formal Interrogations
Questioning
Techniques in Vehicle Stops, Street Interviews, and Formal Interrogations
Body
Language in Vehicle Stops, Street Interviews, and Formal Interrogations
Handling
Deception in Vehicle Stops, Street Interviews, and Formal Interrogations
(Interviewing
I, II, III, IV)
Course
Number:
CR-502 - 505
Course Length: 4 Days or 4 Separate Days
The interviewing series
consist of four complete days of instruction in the art and science
of gathering accurate and more complete information from persons
by means of oral interviews and assessing non-verbal communication.
This involves oral interaction, interpretation of non-verbal behaviors,
and assessment of deception. This process is discussed from the
standpoint of various interviewing situations including traffic
stops, vehicle collision investigations, interviews of victims
and witnesses, and interrogations of criminal suspects. Beginning
with Interviewing I, and progressing through Interviewing IV,
the participant explores the alternatives available for obtaining
information from those who wish to furnish assistance, as well
as those who attempt to conceal information. Each successive workshop
builds on the preceding one, but is complete in itself. Through
the use of videos, slides and classroom exercises, participants
discuss how to prepare for interviews, assess subjects, and conduct
street and formal interviews. Interviewing methods introduced
are discussed in light of both the routine interviews involved
in traffic and foot patrol, as well as the interrogation of a
suspect in custody.
Techniques
for Improving Street and Formal Interrogations
covers the step-by-step approach to the field interview,
as well as the formal interrogation. Starting with an overview
of the benefits of separating “interview” techniques
from “interrogation” techniques, this workshop discusses
the overall preparation and tactics of conducting a successful
interview, including proper attire, avoiding the “traditional”
police interview approach, implementing the “Seven-Step
Interview”, movement, building rapport, note-taking and
terminating an interview. Contents include preplanning of the
interview, questioning techniques, application of “Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs” to all interviews and interrogations,
assisting victims and witnesses to remember and articulate details
from memory, the process of cognitive interviewing, interviewing
the learning disabled, questioning children, and elements of oral
and written statements.
Questioning
Techniques in Vehicle Stops, Street Interviews, and Formal Interrogations
has several distinct sections of discussion. This workshop begins
with the principles and suggested practices of facility enhancement
– traffic stop, victim interview, witness report or arrested
suspect’s statement. Where you interview, and under what
conditions you interview affects the outcome. This workshop makes
specific suggestions for improvement of any facility used to conduct
interviews, with an emphasis on selecting the best available location
and working to enhance its contribution to a successful interview.
Next, participants learn how to make the initial assessment of
each subject, and how to determine the approach that will maximize
the quantity of information obtained. The types and uses of various
questioning techniques are discussed, along with the types of
denials expected from suspects and non-suspects alike. Various
common, and more progressive, questioning techniques are covered
including manipulative versus confrontational interrogation, verbal
probing techniques, and conversation management. Content includes
developing baselines for determining honesty, using verbal neurolinguistics,
using rationalizations, making progressive accusations, and handling
a stalemate. The primary thrust of this workshop is to expose
each participant to the potential and utility of different questioning
techniques, and how to progress beyond denials.
Body
Language in Vehicle Stops, Street Interviews, and Formal Interrogations
is dedicated to the proposition that body language is a potential
second language to be used by the trained interviewer. As such,
it is two-way communication. This workshop focuses not only on
the proper observation of a subject’s body movements and
chosen spatial relationships, but also discusses the use of this
modality by the interviewer to enhance the interview results.
This workshop places the preplanning covered in the first session
and the questioning techniques covered in the second session into
perspective. By understanding the concepts and use of behavior
symptom analysis, participants learn to recognize leakage, incongruence
and deceptive behavior. This workshop focuses on posture, breathing
gestures, eye movement and spatial relationships, as well as physical
signs of stress as both tools to gain additional information and
methods to assess the truthfulness of that information. Contents
include the role of fear and other emotions in body movement,
context and congruence of movements, cultural differences, and
using an officer's body language to control denials and obtain
useful statements. The workshop details observations possible
of a subject from head to toe, with extended sections on facial
movements, eye movements indicative of deception, and clues to
the carrying of a concealed weapon. Especially for the patrol
officer on a traffic stop, the ability to accurately assess body
language indicative of either a threat or of deception is a major
officer safety tool.
Handling
Deception in Vehicle Stops, Street Interviews, and Formal Interrogations
is the last of the interviewing series, and covers an in-depth
analysis of the various forms of deception. Participants learn
the major causes of deception and the three basic kinds of deception
in interrogations. They discuss the five stages of an interrogation
of a guilty suspect, as well as factors that affect the selection
of the proper approach to an interrogation. The James-Lange Theory
of Emotion is presented as a model to be applied to interviews
of all types to detect deception. Participants learn to apply
the stress reaction of “fight – flight – freeze”
to deception detection, and learn to detect anxiety, leakage and
other symptoms of the fear of detection. Topics include deception
indicators such as those seen in oral speech, oral responses to
questions, “non-responses”, posture, attitude, specific
body movements, and other indirect indicators. Participants become
able to assess the diminished responses inherent in certain types
of suspects, and learn how to question them. The traits, attitudes,
and defenses of the untruthful suspect are explored and recommendations
made for improving communications with them. Contents include
indicators of a pending confession, handling of anger, development
of admissions, avoiding false confessions, interviewing problems
with sociopaths and psychopaths, and handling the compliant personality.
The workshop ends with an examination of the goals of interviews
and interrogations, and how to design a successful approach for
each encounter.
