•Ψ Intro to ForenPsych Ψ

Police Processes IV:

Investigative Interviewing

Dr Rashid Minhas,
Rashid.minhas@uwl.ac.uk
PH 402
Why Interview?
 To ascertain the truth? •Juries rely heavily on witness
 To allow the witness to evidence (Dando and Milne,
explain a set of 2009)
circumstances •Vitally important that
 To obtain information and material held in the witness’
‘evidence’ memory is accessed, recalled
 To prove or disprove
and recorded in as
someone’s involvement in an comprehensive and accurate
offence
 To identify further lines of manner as possible.
enquiry
 To present this evidence to a
court
 That Research stuff again...
• Following the introduction of PACE interviews are
tape recorded. This allowed more research.
• Suspect interviews stated that there was:
• “a lack of preparation, general ineptitude, poor
technique, assumptions of guilt, unduly repetitive,
persistent or laboured questioning, a failure to
establish the relevant facts and the exertion of too
much pressure.” Baldwin (1992, cited in Centrex,
2005:11)
How Do They Do With Witnesses?
• “(witness interviews) were of a much lower standard
than the suspect tapes, in that there were far more
leading questions asked, most of the interviewers did
not allow the witnesses to tell their account, and the
interviews were mainly police led, unstructured and
not planned. I felt in most interviews the witness had
a lot more to tell”.
Practitioners Briefing Note for Improving Interviewing
Skills 2002
 The History of Interviewing in UK – A Timeline

1970s 1984 1986 1992 1999 2002 2007/2011

Miscarriages of Justice P.A.C.E. Tape Recording P.E.A.C.E. YJCA 1999 ACPO N.I.I.S. .
of Suspect
Guildford 4 Codes of Interviews Memorandum of Vulnerable, Strategic Revised
Cardiff 3 Practice Good Practice – video Intimidated, Approach to March 2011
Birmingham 6 recording of child Interviewing
Judith Ward Code ‘C’ interviews Special
Stefan Kiszko measures ‘Tiered’ system
(Professor Eric
Reliance on hand written notes ‘as soon as Reliance on ‘contemporaneous Shepherd, Tom ‘7 Principles’
practicable after the interview’ notes’ Williamson etc.)

Confession Culture ‘Open-minded’, ‘ethical and transparent’, ‘search for the truth’
The 7 Principles of Investigative Interviewing

• The aim of investigative interviewing is to obtain accurate and reliable accounts from victims, witnesses
or suspects about matters under investigation.
• Investigators must act fairly when questioning victims, witnesses or suspects. Vulnerable people must be
treated with particular consideration at all times.
• Investigative Interviewing should be approached with an investigative mindset. Accounts obtained from
the person who is being interviewed should always be tested against what the interviewer already knows
or what can reasonably be established.
• When conducting an interview, investigators are free to ask a wide range of questions in order to obtain
material which may assist an investigation.
• Investigators should recognise the positive impact of an early admission in the context of the criminal
justice system. (Nearest thing to ‘confession’!).
• Investigators are not bound to accept the first answer given. Questioning is not unfair merely because it is
persistent.
• Even when the right of silence is exercised by a suspect, investigators have a responsibility to put
questions to them.
• In the UK, future miscarriages of justice are more likely to stem from the interviewing
of witnesses, not suspects
• Miscarriages include the guilty evading justice just as it does the innocent being
wrongly convicted
• Interviewing, a confession or a search for detail, checkable facts and the truth?
The PEACE

P Planning and
Preparation
• Vital to efficient and successful interview outcomes

• How to open an interview meeting, engage with the

E Engage and Explain interviewee, and establish rapport and ground rules.

• Addresses the most important achievable objectives of the

A Account, Clarification,
and Challenge
interview, probing, and challenging the interviewee
appropriately.

C Closure • What are the considerations before ending the interview.

• What has the interview achieved, how it fits with the

E Evaluation investigation purpose, what happens next, reflection on

performance and development needs.
 Plan and Prepare

• The Witness
• The Offence
• Other Matters
 Engage and Explain

• ‘establishing rapport’ is a core skill of interviewing,

describing it as necessary to “facilitate a dialogue in which
the interviewee is encouraged to participate” (Centrex,
2005.36).
Good practice
• Be yourself
• Be honest –create a good impression
• Check their names, their needs and their concerns
• Be empathic
• Explain what you want and the reasons for this.
• Explain the procedures
• Set ground rules
What Impact Do We Have
On Interviewees?
Less than
10 % Actual
words
30-40%
Tone of
voice
55-65% Non
Verbal

Figures - Zulawski and

Wicklander 2001
 Ground Rules –
Explain stuff!

• Their evidence is important

• They will need to work hard
• Don’t edit things, tell everything, even if it doesn’t seem
relevant
• They can ask questions if they don’t understand
• It’s ok not to know something
• There will be supplementary questions to clarify points
Remember, the witness should be doing most of the talking
• Allow them time to understand and consider the question and
formulate their reply
• Listen carefully
 Explain Everything

• It’s ok if they don’t know something

• It’s ok to contradict if the officer has got it wrong
• We will go through things again to
get details
• Note taking
 Account

Need to;-
Obtain the interviewee’s own
uninterrupted account
Expand details in their
account
Where necessary clarify
(challenge) their account
Points to Prove/Defences
Interview model –C.I vs.
Conversational management
The Cognitive Interview
Technique

Geiselman & Fisher

Cognitive Interview

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_QbTX2qS10
The Cognitive Interview Technique
• Geiselman & Fisher devised the Cognitive Interview Technique to
increase the reliability and validity of Police interviews.
• Replaced the standard police interview
• Improving effectiveness of questioning witnesses in police interviews
How can we improve the accuracy of EWT?

Fisher and Geiselman (1992)

Reviewed memory literature – people remember things better if they
are provided with retrieval cues.
This technique they devised had 4 components.
 Why?
Recalling how you felt and the
1.Context reinstatement context enhance recall (these details
act as cues to recall)
Witnesses might not realise that some
2. Report everything details are important and details
might help them recall significant
information

3. Recall from a
Encourages many retrieval paths
changed perspective
When events are recalled in
4. Recall in reverse forward order, witnesses reconstruct
order based on their schemas. If the order is
changed they are more accurate
Cognitive Interview Technique
• Watch the following clip carefully.
• How is the cognitive interview technique different from a standard
interview?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGRNWM8RvGQ
Kohnken et al (1999)
- meta-analysis of 53 studies BUT
- Found on average a 34% - Most of the sample were
university students
increase in amount of correct
information generated in CI

Milne and Bull (2002)

-Found that when they used a
combination of BUT
“report everything” and “context - Still in a laboratory - artificial
reinstatement”,
participants’ recall was significantly
higher.
Individual Differences
Mello and Fisher (1996)
When CI and normal interview techniques were tested on both older
adults’ (72 years) and younger adults’ (22 years) memory, CI was
better for both.

But was more significantly an advantage for the elderly.

Which stage do these prompts relate to?
Please do not edit anything out of Think about how you were feeling
your report, even things you think at the time and think about your
may not be important. reactions to the incident.
2 1

Try starting with the thing that Think about what the surrounding
impressed you the most in the environment looked like at the
incident and then go from there, scene, such as rooms, the weather,
going both forward in time and any nearby people or objects.
1
backward. 4

Try to place yourself in the role of a

prominent character in the incident
and think about what he or she
must have seen. 3
Cognitive Interview, a success?
Police officers do not regularly fully apply the model and
that when they do, it is often poorly applied (Memon,
Holley, Milne, Kohnken And Bull, (1994) cited in Dando,
Wilock, Milne, and Henry (2009)
Officers often edit out the parts of C.I. which they do not
believe work or find too complicated for either the witness
or themselves (Dando, Wilcock, Milne and Henry, 2009).
Usually this is the last two components.
C.I. does take longer to conduct (Dando, Wilcock, Milne and
Henry, 2009.)
It is less effective on young children and persons with
certain mental disabilities and it appears less effective when
very long retention intervals between the event and the
recollection are involved (Esgate and Groome, 2005).
 Dando, Wilcock and Milne (2008a) found that
between 34% and 40% of police officers said they
felt pressurised to hurry whilst completing witness
interviews
 Practitioners often felt they are insufficiently trained
in its use or because they have concerns about the
efficacy of some of the techniques (Memon
Meisssner and Fraser)
 Wagstaff, Wheatcroft, Caddicka, Kirbya and Lamonta
(2011) C.I. With LIP?
 5 T.E.D.
W.H.
Questioning Styles
Probe

Narrative
 Sketch Plans
• Clarifies things
• Memory cue
 Closure
•Have you covered everything you need to?
•Have we covered the ‘points to prove’?
•Has the interviewee provided all the information they
are able to?
•Have you got a clear understanding of what has
been said?
 Closure
Explain what will happen next –short and long
term
Be honest and don’t make promises
Have they got any questions or comments?
Witness - Finish on a ‘neutral subject.’
Contact details
Witness Charter
 Evaluate
• What information have we got?
• What effect does this have on
the investigation?
• Further lines of enquiry
• How did we do?
A strength of PEACE Assumption
of the
issue(s)
Overcoming unconscious
barriers and behaviours
Reinforces Leads to
Confirmation biases

Poor forensic
questions, Confirmation
NVCs, more Bias
assumptions

Using