Essay on Investigative Interviewing

Interviewing suspects, witnesses, and victims of a crime creates the foundation for the success or failure of an investigation. With that in mind, it is important to uphold the highest standards of integrity and accountability throughout this process to achieve the desired objective of justice. One of the processes that facilitate the achievement of justice for crime victims is interviews. Without the account of those that may have had a central role in committing a crime, or those that may have witnessed a significant aspect of the commission of a crime, other evidence material like the CCTV images, fingerprints, and other forensic materials may have little value (Investigative interviewing, 2016).

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Interviews are therefore imperative for the justice process. Police officers believe that the main target for an interview is to get a confession from a suspect in most cases (Investigative interviewing, 2016). This is because a confession is a total game changer when a suspect is being convicted in a court of law. With that in mind, recording or taping an interview is the only way that the police can prove that a suspect confessed to a crime during an interview (Investigative interviewing, 2016). On the contrary, the police for a very long time have been using coercive interviewing tactics that infringe on the rights of the suspects just to get a confession (Young, 2011). Some would torture the suspects just to get a confession out of them. This menace to justice has significantly been regulated with the introduction of laws and acts that ensure that interviews are conducted following the right protocols which include a video recording and audio recording of the interviews (Young, 2011). This further ensures the integrity and avoids miscarriages of justice.

Video recording of an interview when getting a suspects statement may play a vital role in ensuring that the suspects get a fair hearing (Young, 2011). This is because audio and visual recordings are not easily altered. In addition to that, they provide a conclusive summary of the whole process of interviewing and getting a statement. This piece of evidence can then be used in formal courts to attain justice because they are used as reference points. Audios and recorded videos can repeatedly be used to analyze and get more clarity on the interviews. Other factors including facial expressions, tone, pitch, speed of the interview, etc. that can be useful in defending a case and convincing the jury or judge are all found within these video recordings (Young, 2011).

In most cases, most of the interrogators encounter a lot of challenges when trying to have a suspect make a statement that can be used officially in a court of law. This can be facilitated by several different scenarios; in some cases, it involves the right use of the protocols during the arresting and interrogation of the suspect, and in others, it solely involves the suspect not cooperating with the interrogator (Investigative interviewing, 2016). One of the major challenges in getting a suspect to make a statement is upholding all his rights right from when he/she is arrested for the time when he/she is giving her statement. This is because any infringement on the suspects right in any way may render the statement and even the arrest null and void (Investigative interviewing, 2016). For example, in the United States if the suspect is arrested without telling him/her the Miranda rights in the process makes the arrest unlawful (Investigative interviewing, 2016). This then has an effect on the rest of the processes in place to ensure that the suspect gets a fair hearing including the interrogation process. Secondly, most of the suspects deliberately conceal some facts in their statements either to save themselves or those they care about from being convicted. This has an adverse effect and may lead to a miscarriage of justice.

Getting a credible statement from a suspect is one of the most challenging tasks to achieve. One of the strategies that have been used over the years to reach the credibility of the statements made by suspects is the Reid technique (Young, 2011).The Reid technique employs an interviewing format that permits evaluation of a suspects truthfulness from a polygraph examination. This technique is better known as the behavior analysis interview, and since the federal employee polygraph act was passed in 1988, it is a better strategy for getting suspect statements (Young, 2011).

The second approach that is commonly used is the PEACE technique (Young, 2011). PEACE means Preparation and Planning, engagement and explain, account, closure and exposure (Young, 2011). The procedure discovers the truth from suspects without creating false witnesses, and it is very straight forward. It assumes that a liar with gradually build up a series of false explanations; the more the suspect lies, the more he will have to juggle his/her brain. Eventual the inconsistency on the facts stated breaks down the complete fabrication (Young, 2011).

References

Investigative interviewing. (2016). App.college.police.uk. From:

http://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/investigations/invetigative-interviewing/ [Accessed on 13th December, 2016].

Young, D. (2011). Initiating, Pausing, Resuming, and Ending Police questioning: Due Process as interactional norms in Australian police interrogation room. Policing, 5(3), 248-264.