The Investigator's Workbook: Principles of Practice - How to Conduct Proper Interviews and Interrogations

Oct 13, 2025

Principles of Practice: How to Conduct Proper Investigative Interviews and Interrogations*

Since 1947, John E. Reid and Associates has been conducting investigative interviews and, when appropriate, interrogations.

Since the mid-1970s, we have...

The Investigator's Notebook

Aug 31, 2025

The Investigator’s Notebook consists of over 190 Investigator Tips organized in a sequence that reflects the various stages of an investigation. Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues.

Best Practices That Investigators Should Follow To Prevent False Confessions

Aug 07, 2025

Before we discuss the “best practices,” it is relevant to consider the primary causes of false confessions.

Over 60 years ago, in the first edition of their book, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions...

Why do the courts reject the premise from false confession experts that lying to a suspect about evidence causes false confessions?

May 29, 2025

Social Psychologists, Defense Attorneys, Academicians, and Law Enforcement interrogation critics claim that

Misrepresenting evidence to a subject during an interrogation will cause innocent people to confess

Social psychologists often claim that police...

Correcting Misinformation About the Reid Technique

May 06, 2025

Critics of the Reid Technique make several false and erroneous statements (in italics below) when describing the Reid process. In the following pages, we will list their criticisms and our responses.

Investigator Tips About the Reid Technique and False Confession Experts Sorted by Topics

Jan 18, 2025

Over the years we have posted numerous Investigator Tips that discuss the essential elements of the Reid Technique and the claims made by false confession "experts" about the Reid process. In this...

Why the Reid Technique is so Successful

Nov 16, 2024

One of the primary reasons that the Reid Technique is so successful in helping investigators resolve criminal investigations and to secure an acknowledgment of guilt from the offender is that the process...

Preparing to Testify in Confession Cases Parts One and Two

Oct 30, 2024

Preparing to Testify in Confession Cases (Parts One and Two)

In Part One of this Investigator Tip we will highlight the content of an article written by Attorney Deja Vishny *...

Richard Leo's Boilerplate Statement Regarding Police Interrogation Practices

Jun 26, 2024

The following is the "boilerplate" position taken from various statements, publications and testimony of Richard Leo regarding police interrogation practices.

The Social Psychology of Police Interrogation

Police interrogation is a...

“I did it”…. is that a valid statement of guilt?

May 29, 2024

The purpose of an interrogation is to learn the truth. In most instances, this consists of the guilty suspect telling the investigator what he did regarding the commission of the crime under...

How do you respond to false confession experts presented by the defense? (updated Nov '23)

Oct 20, 2023

Over the years we have received a number of emails that have stated essentially the following:

I am an investigator with the (agency name). A few years ago a coworker and myself...

Clarifying Misrepresentations About Interrogation Techniques (updated May 2023)

May 19, 2023

Over the years social psychologists, defenses attorneys, and some academicians have
offered a number of criticisms of current law enforcement interrogation practices, and, in
particular, the Reid Technique. Some of...

Over 50 Free Reid Video Presentations

Jan 24, 2022

Below you will find over 30 helpful video tips on our YouTube page now organized in 6 Playlists:

1. Who are We and What is The Reid Technique

False Confessions: The Issues to be Considered

Jun 01, 2021

False Confessions – The Issues to be Considered

In this document we discuss the primary causes of and contributing factors to false confessions, and the Best Practices to follow to...

25 Reid Video Tips

Jan 11, 2021

September October 2020 Investigator Tip

The September/October 2020 Investigator Tip provides you with links to 25 brief video presentations from our YouTube channel - The Reid Technique Tips, that...

What Questions Should be Asked to Determine the Voluntariness and Validity of a Subject’s Confession?

Aug 01, 2019

While there are numerous issues to consider in the process of evaluating the voluntariness and validity of a subject’s confession, the following questions may be helpful in making such an assessment.

...

The Feasibility of an Analytic Assessment to Identify False Confessions

Nov 01, 2012

The medical, psychiatric and therapy communities have a long history of using diagnostic "checklists" to evaluate the presence or absence of physiological or mental disease or degree of impairment. These analytic assessments...

What Exactly is the Reid Technique of Interrogation?

Jul 01, 2011

Part One

Despite the availability of specific information in books, training manuals and on our web site about the Reid Technique of interrogation, it is routinely mis-characterized. The following description...

Research Review: The lie, the Bluff and False Confessions

Jan 01, 2011

One of the most controversial aspects of criminal interrogation involves the use of trickery and deceit. While Federal and State Supreme Courts routinely uphold confessions that were obtained from interrogations during which...

Responding to Defense Experts' Characterization of Interrogation

May 01, 2010

In 1998 David Lykken wrote a book titled, "A Tremor in the Blood: The Uses and Abuses of the Polygraph Technique". In it, he advocated the use of his own "Guilty Knowledge...