Investigative interviewing: the literature

Review of investigative interviewing
Mary Schollum, September 2005
ISBN 0-477-10011-2
Published by Police National Headquarters, PO Box 3017, Wellington

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Summary

This summary presents key points from the international literature about investigative interviewing

GENERAL

The information collected in an interview must be accurate, relevant and complete.

Research suggests effective interviewers are those who:

• have a knowledge of the psychology of interviewing and scientific experimentation
• have received a thorough grounding in a wide range of practical techniques to draw on in interviews as appropriate
• have had the opportunity for substantial practice in a learning environment, and
• are supervised and given feedback on their real-life interviews.

DEFINITIONS

• A ‘witness interview’ is the generic term for any interview with a victim, witness or complainant.

• Special attention needs to be paid to ‘vulnerable’, ‘intimidated’ and ‘significant’ witnesses.
• The usefulness of the term ‘interrogation’ for the questioning of suspects is outweighed by the negative connotations of the term, and doesn’t take account of the possibility of a willing subject.
• The England and Wales training material has abandoned the term ‘interrogation’ in favour of ‘investigative interviewing’ to describe all interviews with victims, witnesses and suspects.
• There are increasing calls for police officers to be seen as ‘investigators’ from the start of their careers.

THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEWING

• Investigative interviewing is the major fact-finding method police officers have at their disposal when investigating crime. They have to do it well.
• Quality investigations require quality investigative interviews.
• Officers must recognise that every interview is unique and potentially generates intelligence which can be used not only in the specific investigation but also in other policing activities.
• Interviewers need to appreciate the contribution made by the interview to the success of an investigation and that this success relies on the goodwill and cooperation of victims, witnesses and the community.
• Eyewitness testimony and confessions are considered the most persuasive forms of evidence.
• A large proportion of suspects readily make admissions. Interviewers should make sure they get as much information as possible and not close the interview prematurely.
• The vast majority of suspects who admit to wrongdoing do so early in the interview.
• Despite the best efforts of the interviewer, few suspects change their story once they have denied wrong-doing.

ETHICAL INTERVIEWING

• Interviews should be conducted with integrity, commonsense and sound judgement.
• Using unfair means to get a confession (noble cause corruption) is never justified
• Interviewers must avoid unethical behaviours such as making threats or promises or using coercive and oppressive tactics.
• Ethical interviewing involves treating the suspect with respect and being open-minded, tolerant and impartial.
• If offenders believe they have been treated well they are less likely to form a negative view of police or to communicate a negative view of police to others.
• Many miscarriages of justice have resulted from police malpractice.
• Police must be aware of why some people will make false confessions. These occur in different ways and for different reasons, including dispositional (eg age, personality characteristics, intellectual impairment, etc) and situational (eg isolation, confrontation and minimisation) factors.
• The seven principles of investigative interviewing developed by the Home Office in 1992 for use by England and Wales have stood the test of time and have been adopted by other western jurisdictions.
• Police need to appreciate the many reasons why witnesses and suspects may not be cooperative in interviews, including fear of embarrassment, retaliation, loss to themselves, legal proceedings, harming someone else, self-disclosure and fear of restitution.

THE PEACE MODEL OF INTERVIEWING

The PEACE interviewing model provides a structure that can be used for all investigative interviews. The components are:

P - Planning & Preparation
E - Engage & Explain
A - Account
C - Closure
E - Evaluation

• The PEACE model was developed by police and has been used extensively by police both in the United Kingdom and other western countries.
• While theoretically based the PEACE interviewing model is also informed by the practical and pragmatic perspective of everyday policing.
• From 1993, the police service in England and Wales undertook a vast programme of PEACE training but by 2000 evaluations showed it had not lived up to expectations. Reasons include minimal support from management, lack of buy-in from supervisors, inconsistent implementation, and limited resources to develop and maintain the programme.
• A 2001 evaluation (Clarke & Milne) for the Home Office found poor transfer of information and skills from the classroom to the workplace. For example, the research found poor use of interviewing techniques for obtaining an interviewee’s account, little evidence of routine supervision of interviews in the workplace, and misunderstandings about the PEACE model.
• The evaluation found that interviewing of victims and witnesses was far worse than that of suspects. This was thought to be mainly due to a lack of guidelines, the perception of a lesser ‘status’ for witness interviews and the distractions present when the person is interviewed in an environment unable to be controlled by police (e.g., the witness’s home or work).
• Clarke and Milne strongly recommended the tape recording of all interviews with ‘event relevant’ victims and witnesses.

INFLUENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY

• Memory. The memory is made up of three sequential stores: the sensory store, the short-term store and the long-term store, and involves three distinct processes: encoding, storage and retrieval. A first attempt at recall usually reveals broad outlines but little detail. A lack of interruption by the interviewer, and instructions to concentrate and report everything will greatly help get the level of detail required.
• Body language / Non-verbal cues. Research has found that facial expression, voice tone, silence, body positioning, eye movements, pauses in speech, and others aspects of BL and NVCs all send messages. These may confirm, obscure, or contradict what is being said. Research warns against interviewers developing an over-confidence in their ability to ‘read’ the interviewee’s BL/NVCs.
• Deception. There is no typical non-verbal behaviour which is associated with deception. Despite this, research has found that people (including both interviewers and interviewees) often hold stereotypical views about non-verbal behaviour which are incorrect. Thus, conclusions based solely on someone’s behaviour in the interview room are not reliable.
• Suggestibility. Interviewers need to be aware that interviewees are vulnerable to a range of suggestive techniques that can affect their recall.

INTERVIEWEES

• The completeness and accuracy of the witness account is often the main factor that determines whether or not a crime is solved.
• The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (England & Wales) encourages police to videotape interviews with ‘vulnerable’ and ‘intimidated’ witnesses but leaves it to the court to decide whether the tape will be used as the witness’s evidence-in-chief.
• The suspect interview is pivotal to the process of case construction and disposition.
• Suspects are most likely to confess when they perceive the evidence against them as being strong (by far the most important reason), when they are sorry for their crime and want to talk about it and give their account of what happened, and when they are reacting to external pressure from factors such as the stress of confinement and police persuasiveness.
• UK police take a 3-stage approach to suspect interviews - the ‘suspect agenda’, the ‘police agenda’ and the ‘challenge’.

GENERAL TOOL-KIT OF TECHNIQUES

The literature reveals a wide range of effective interview tactics/techniques. The number and extent to which any of them are used in any particular interview will vary according to the skill level of the interviewer, the cooperation of the interviewee, the nature of the offence/ incident under investigation, and the type of approach being taken e.g., a recall interview, a conversation management interview or an ECI interview.

• Good first impression
• Personalise the interview
• Establish rapport
• Explain the aims and purpose of the interview
• Need for concentration
• Open-ended and probing closed questions
• Other types of productive questions
• Use of pauses and silence
• Not interrupting the interviewee
• Body language/non-verbal communication
• Good interviewer behaviour
• Interviewee-compatible questioning
• OK to say "Don’t know"
• OK to say "Don’t understand"
• No fabrication or guessing
• Initiate a free report
• Focused retrieval
• Activation and probing of an image
• Systematic probing of topics
• Echo probing
• Active listening
• Summarising
• Querying and clarification
• Mirroring / synchrony
• Sketch drawings and visual aids (e.g., maps, photos)
• Challenging
• Clarification of inconsistencies
• Seating arrangements
• Note-taking
• Mutual gaze / eye-contact
• Friendliness, patience and support
• Praising the interviewee’s efforts
• Report everything (RE)
• Transfer control (TC)
• Context reinstatement (CR)
• Varied and extensive retrieval
• Change the temporal order (RO)
• Change perspectives (CP)
• Focus on all senses
• Memory jogs for names - common/uncommon, length, first letter etc
• Memory jogs for person information - appearance, clothing, characteristics etc
• Paralanguage
• Taking breaks
• Investigatively important questions

MAJOR INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES COGNITIVE INTERVIEWING

• A dramatic increase in research and discussion of the cognitive interview (CI) and enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) in the late 1990s confirmed the ability of the techniques to improve both the quality and quantity of recall in interviews with willing subjects.
• Confusion has arisen as to the exact meaning of the ‘cognitive interview’ and ‘cognitive interviewing’, and the ‘enhanced cognitive interview’ and ‘enhanced cognitive interviewing’.
• PEACE is the interviewing model of choice for police forces in England and Wales, with ‘free recall’ and ‘conversation management’ (see below) as the preferred interview styles for enhancing recall in the majority of interviews.
• In the ‘account’ stage of PEACE interviews with cooperative witnesses, officers do a free recall interview (Tier 1), a basic ECI (Tier 2) or an advanced ECI (Tier 3).
• All types of interview have a range of tactics that officers can draw on.
• The advanced ECI is used predominantly for interviews calling for specialist interviewing skills e.g., when interviewing vulnerable, intimidated and/or significant witnesses.
• Successful interviews require a mix of cognitive, interpersonal and social factors to facilitate memory retrieval. As well as the ECI, the two other internationally recognised interview models for use within the PEACE framework are:
• fr free ee r recall ecall (FR) - considered one of the most successful and practical methods for obtaining reliable, full and accurate accounts from cooperative witnesses and suspects. The ‘recall’ interview is used predominantly by uniform investigators and detectives for volume crime interviews.
• conversation management (CM) - reliable and effective method for interviewing uncooperative witnesses and suspects. This model can be used across all crime types and at all levels.

OTHER INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES

• Hypnosis. It is generally agreed that investigative hypnosis is risky, with the four main dangers being suggestibility, loss of critical judgment, confabulation or lies, and the cementing of a false memory.
• Polygraph. Despite its continued use in parts of the United States, polygraph testing is generally regarded as unreliable in detecting whether a person is telling the truth or lying.
• Statement analysis. The scientific examination of an interviewee’s words by way of a variety of techniques is increasingly being taught to police officers. To be successful it requires a record of the person’s actual words not a written interpretation of them.
• RPMs. These tactics (rationalising, projecting and minimising) are commonly used by American police - and supported by the courts - to get suspects to confess. They help suspects justify their actions, blame others and reduce the seriousness of the offence. They are not advocated by police in the United Kingdom.
• Other. Kalbfleisch’s (1994) typology and the Reid Technique both set out a range of tactics for interviewing suspects. Although generally supported by American courts, many of these tactics are regarded in jurisdictions sharing the English common law tradition as manipulative and oppressive.

ACPO INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW STRATEGY

• A working group established by the Association of Chief Police Officers in England and Wales (ACPO) in 2001 to evaluate the state of investigative interviewing concluded that the PEACE model needed to be modernised, re-introduced and supported by proper structures and processes.
• With continuing support from ACPO and the Home Office, the Investigative Interviewing Strategy for England and Wales (and Northern Ireland) was established in 2003 with all forces expected to submit an implementation plan by end-2004.
• The strategy established a 5-tier training structure and recommended comprehensive training at each level as well as ongoing assessment in the workplace.
• The strategy reinforces good practice through the widespread adoption of the PEACE model, recognition that effective interviewing requires time, concentration and flexibility, and acknowledgement of the crucial role of supervision.
• Centrex (the national Central Police Training and Development Authority for England and Wales) developed and made available a package of training material around each tier in 2004.
• The strategy aims to create an environment in which inexperienced interviewers are able to request assistance in planning and conducting interviews from supervisors and more experienced peers, and additional support is able to be provided to serious cases by officers with advanced interviewing skills.

TECHNOLOGY AND INTERVIEWING

• Most western jurisdictions have accepted electronic recording as a practical and useful means of documenting police interviews with suspects.
• The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 made it mandatory for England and Wales police forces to record suspect interviews by electronic means. The recording of witness interviews is a much more recent phenomenon.
• Research shows that camera angle can have a profound influence on jurors’ assessment of the voluntariness of confessional evidence.
• Recording equipment is changing rapidly. VHS will soon be out of date and unable to be supported. Police must prepare to change current videotape systems.

LOCATION OF INTERVIEWS

• Police should maintain as much control over the location of investigative interviews as possible. Both interviewer and interviewee need to concentrate, therefore the disruptions at a witness’s home or work, or at the interviewer’s desk in a busy office, are not conducive to an effective interview.
• Suspect interview rooms should ensure cameras are focused on all parties equally. Picture-in-picture technology (2 views of the interview room) is being increasingly used.
• Conversation tends to take place most comfortably at a 90° angle (or a ten-to-two position). A face-to-face orientation can be too confrontational.
• Interview rooms should have no distractions, have any tables kept to the side of the officer rather than between the officer and suspect, and have aidememoires available to ensure legal and other requirements are met.
• Privacy and comfort for witness interviews are major considerations.
• In interviews with vulnerable, intimidated and significant witnesses, it is increasingly being regarded as vital to have two interviewers (one in the interview room with the witness and one in an adjacent room taking notes, checking the equipment is working, and communicating with the main interviewer about inconsistencies and things that may have been missed).

TRAINING

• Under the ACPO strategy, forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are implementing 5 levels of training - 1) probationers (first 2 years in police); 2) uniform investigators and detectives; 3) specialist interviewers (vulnerable, intimidated & significant witnesses, and suspects in major crimes); 4) supervisors; 5) interview advisers (small number of skilled interviewers called in to assist with the planning of major and/or complex interviews).
• The core skills needing to be developed in police interviewers are the ability to plan and prepare for interviews, the ability to establish rapport, and the ability to carry out effective listening and effective questioning.
• Interview training should: impart both a theoretical framework as well as technical competence; be a comprehensive mix of classroom instruction, simulated scenarios and role playing, self-monitoring, and workplace assessment; and be focused on whole-of-police and whole-of-career.
• The UK training allows one to three weeks training at each level, as well as ongoing assessment in the workplace. Specialist interviewing courses (e.g. advanced witness or suspect interviewing) have been designed to take three weeks.
• Monitoring and evaluation must be built into any implementation programme.
• Training must include supervisors and managers - their buy-in is crucial.
• Training needs to emphasise that any interviewer who does an interview without good planning first is merely "in a rush to get it wrong".
• The 5-tier interview structure established in 2003 is in the process of being incorporated into the Home Office/ACPO-led "Professionalising the Investigative Process" project (PIP). For example, interviewing witnesses and interviewing suspects are two of the three components for PIP Level 1 (which comprises 3 national operational standards for all ‘investigators’).

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Table of contents

SUMMARY

OVERVIEW
Introduction
Structure
Limitations

DEFINITIONS
Interview
Victim and witness
Complainant
Suspect
Interrogation versus interviewing
Investigative interviewing
Investigator / detective

THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTIGATIVE INTER INTERVIEWING VIEWING
Types of interview
Why investigative interviewing is important
The interviewer
Understanding factors influencing interviews
Witness or suspect interviews - which are more important?
Emphasis on getting a confession

ETHICAL INTERVIEWING
Introduction
Background
Unethical interviewing
Ethical interviewing
Miscarriages of justice
Improvements
False confessions
Principles of investigative interviewing

THE INFLUENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY
Background
Memory
Body language or non-verbal communications (NVCs)
Deception
Suggestibility

INTERVIEWEES
Witnesses
Vulnerable witnesses
Suspects
Juvenile suspects
Resistance from interviewees

THE PEACE MODEL OF INTER INTERVIEWING VIEWING
Lead up to the PEACE model
Development of PEACE
Wide use of PEACE
Description
Implementation
Does the PEACE model work?
Failure to live up to expectations
2001 evaluation of PEACE training
Effect of PEACE training
Supervision
Formal assessment
Breaches of PACE Act
Wider applicability

MAJOR INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES
Introduction
Questioning
Cognitive interviewing
Enhanced Cognitive Interview
Interviewing traumatised victims
Research findings
Adoption of the CI
Limitations and practical issues
Move away from CI techniques for general training
Discussion
Free recall
Conversation management
Tool-kit of techniques
Terminology

OTHER INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES
Forensic hypnosis
The polygraph
Statement analysis
RPMs
Interrogation techniques
Mutt and Jeff
Focused interviewing and analytic interviewing
Conclusion

THE ACPO INVESTIGATIVE INTER INTERVIEW VIEW STRATEGY
Introduction
Recommendations
Commitment
National training material
Further work
Core Investigative Doctrine

TECHNOLOGY ECHNOLOGY AND INTER INTERVIEWING VIEWING
Introduction
United States
Effect of different camera angles
FBI interactive computer programme
England and Wales
Video compared with audio
Admissibility
Continued reliance on written statements
Recording witness interviews by electronic/digital means
Written statement still required
Practical aspects of recording all witness interviews
  Selection criteria
  Transcription
  Recording equipment
  Cost
  Savings
Admissibility of digital recordings
Willingness to be recorded
Going digital

LOCATION OF INTERVIEWS
Introduction
Interviewing suspects
Optimal fitout
Interviewing victims and witnesses
Remote monitoring

TRAINING
Training content
Purpose of training
Length of residential training
The law
Vulnerable interviewees
Assessment of training effectiveness
Annual appraisal process
Training staff to assess the quality of interviews
Use of a national register
Specialist interviewers

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

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