Will It All End in Tiers?: Police Interviews With Suspects in Britain (From Investigative Interviewing: Rights, Research, Regulation, P 167-189, 2006, Tom Williamson, ed. -- See NCJ-214231)

• NCJ Number: 214240
• Author(s): Andy Griffiths; Becky Milne
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Following a review of the recent history of the techniques used by British police in interviewing suspects, this chapter describes the development and features of the current tiered approach for training investigative interviewers, followed by a report on the findings of an evaluation of the effectiveness of the training in interviews of suspects.

Abstract

Preliminary findings from the evaluation of training in the interviewing of suspects found that trained officers used more productive questions that elicited comprehensive and reliable information from suspects compared with untrained interviewers; however, interviewer proficiency declined over time after initial training, suggesting the need to monitor interviewing performance and provide continuing training. Fifty students who completed the advanced training in interviewing were involved in the evaluation. The report in this chapter presents preliminary findings based on 60 interviews conducted by 15 of the 50 trainees. Five tiers are involved in interview training. Tier 1 is an introduction to interviewing for new police officers or police recruits. Tier 2 is for more experienced officers who are dealing with common crimes such as theft and assault. Tier 3 is designed to prepare officers for dealing with more serious and complex crimes. It includes separate courses for interviewing suspects, witnesses, and witnesses who may be vulnerable or intimidated. Tier 4 addresses the monitoring and supervision of the quality of interviews, and tier 5 introduces the role of the interview coordinator in cases that involve serious and complex crimes. The evaluation focused only on tier 3 training for interviewing suspects. The training addresses planning and preparation for the interviews, the opening phase of the interview, obtaining and clarifying the suspect's account of the events at issue, ending the interview, and assessment of the information obtained in the interview and the interviewer's performance within the interview. 8 figures and 25 references