THE INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEW
I would like to share some of the insights I have gathered during my 35 years of experience conducting interrogations, investigative interviews and polygraph examinations for both the public and private sector. I have honed my skill through conducting thousands of investigative interviews for the Queens District Attorney's Office, where I was a Detective Investigator and Polygraph Examiner. I also have performed polygraph examinations on level III sex offenders for the New York City Department of Probation where I lectured on my S.P.E.A.R Investigative Technique. The Legal Aid Society has used my expertise on many occasions as well. In the private sector, I have conducted interrogations for several of the most prominent armored car companies, the diamond district, pharmaceutical companies, and private attorneys.
The word interrogation has negative connotations these days, so I prefer to use the term Investigative Interviewing instead. The most effective method is a psychophysiological non-confrontational approach. An Investigative Interview is basically a conversation with a purpose. Before conducting the interview, the Investigator must be well prepared. The Investigator's mind should be well disciplined. He\She must know the stratagems that the later verified deceptive Subject might employ in order to attempt to thwart the interview.
The Interviewer must thoroughly understand human behavior, thought processes and the science behind memory recall.
The Investigator should consistently study other interrogations conducted by experts, critique them and continually refine his\her own skills. Some of the best investigative interviews can be viewed today on YouTube.
The ancient Egyptians worshiped Horus, a hawk headed god whose symbol was an all seeing eye.
The Egyptians understood the importance of being observant, perceptive, paying attention to even the smallest phenomenon of human behavior.
The Interviewer should possess a combination of intellectual prowess and intuitive insight. He must be able to subtly shift the subject's mindset from a confident predator mode to an insecure prey mode.
The Interviewer must be able to pay close attention to the five second time interval after the Subject has answered the Investigator's question. This is the period where he should be acutely aware of the Subject's body language, posture, gestures, eye contact and micro expressions.
The Interviewer must assume a confident bearing, sitting up straight with shoulders back,. He should be acutely aware of the changes in the Subject's posture. He must have a thorough understanding of how a Subject's bearing modifies when he is being deceptive.
The Investigator must convince the Subject that coming clean is the best option for his well being and self interest. This can be best accomplished by offering the Subject two different scenarios:
One where the Subject's actions were detestable and would lead to serious consequences.
The other, a more forgiving, sympathetic scenario that might lead to a more amenable outcome mitigating his circumstance. This is the time period where the Subject will either make an admission or go into a state of denial.
Often when the Subject confesses you will observe a change in body language, posture and gestures exhibiting a sign of relief. At this point, allow the Subject to talk freely. As Napoleon Bonaparte once said "Never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake".
Should the Subject go into denial, it is imperative that the Interviewer take action by interrupting the Subject's mindset and not allow the Subject to negatively reinforce his\her position and thereby make the chance of admission unlikely.
An effective technique for breaking the Subject's train of thought during a denial period is to ask a revealing question, for example ("What if I where to tell you that someone saw you at the location in question"), another example would be ("The forensic evidence will show that you were at the scene of the crime or incident"}. People fear forensic evidence due to the fact they watch too much CSI, so it is an effective tool to use.
REVIEW AND EVALUATE
After the Investigator obtains the pertinent information he seeks, he must review the information obtained and determine its actual value and probative potential. The Investigator should correlate the information he has obtained with previously known facts and other additional information that was obtained through interviews with other individuals who were also involved with the incident in question.
If you would like to get a deeper understanding of the Art of the Investigative Interview, you are welcome to attend my S.P.E.A.R Investigative Interviewing Seminar. My next lecture will be announced soon.
About the Author:
