Investigator Tips
Current Investigator Tip
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...
Previous Tips
Interviewing Elderly Subjects
Jul 01, 2004
Interviewing techniques presented in textbooks or during seminars generally assume that the person being interviewed is an emotionally healthy and mature individual with a normal IQ. Twenty-five years ago, when...
Lying to a Suspect: How Far Can an Investigator Go?
Jun 01, 2004
During the course of an investigation an investigator often must rely on duplicity and pretense in an effort to develop evidence against the guilty suspect. Common examples include the use...
Investigating Possible Fabricated Claims
May 01, 2004
A recent case involving a University of Wisconsin student who falsely claimed that she was abducted highlights some important characteristics of these investigations. This particular case quickly achieved national attention...
False Confession Cases - The Issues
Apr 01, 2004
In the past several years a number of false confession cases have received extensive publicity. In several of these cases the convicted individual has been exonerated by DNA testing and the actual...
The Presence of a Third Person in the Interview Room
Mar 01, 2004
Ideally, an interview of a suspect, victim or witness should be conducted in a private setting. The most important element of privacy is communicating one on one with the person being...
Willingness to Repay Stolen Funds Not Always An Indication of Guilt
Feb 01, 2004
During our basic interviewing and interrogation course, the point is made that during an interrogation a suspect's willingness to reimburse a victim for stolen money or property...
The Significance of Listing in Behavior Symptom Analysis
Jan 01, 2004
Listing, as a behavior symptom, describes a series of events or information included within a subject's response. In the following dialogue both of the subject's responses illustrate an example of...
Interrogating a Suspect on the Issue of Identity Theft
Dec 01, 2003
The Federal Trade Commission estimated that in 2002 identity theft cost businesses and consumers 53 billion dollars. Because of the prevalence of identity theft, many investigators find themselves having to interrogate...
Maintaining Objectivity During an Interview
Nov 01, 2003
An interview is designed not only to collect and gather information but to assess the credibility of the person offering that information. In some instances the investigator will have clear...
Laughter and the Detection of Deception
Oct 01, 2003
Recently my wife and I attended her high school reunion. While such reunions are marketed as a great time and an opportunity to get re-acquainted, in truth they are very anxiety...
The Use of Evidence During an Interrogation: Part II
Sep 01, 2003
In the earlier web tip a fundamental principle of interrogation was presented: A guilty suspect may be persuaded to tell the truth if he is convinced that the investigator is...
The Use of Evidence During an Interrogation: Part I
Aug 01, 2003
Types of Evidence
Evidence represents information used to help establish a fact. It may be inculpatory (supporting guilt) or exculpatory (supporting innocence). There are four broad categories of criminal evidence, each with...
Contaminating a Subject's Behavior
Jul 01, 2003
When inferring deception from a suspect's behavior, investigators must remember that a subject's outward behaviors during questioning are not direct signs of lying. Rather, when a person lies behavior symptoms...
The Role Of Consequences in Detecting Deception
Jun 01, 2003
The motivation behind every lie is the avoid the consequences of telling the truth. When my wife came home with bags of merchandise from a K-Mart store that was closing my...
Neurolinguistic Evaluation
May 01, 2003
Neurolinguistic Evaluation
Principles
The outer cortex of the human brain is divided into left and right hemispheres. When performing different activities, one hemisphere dominates over the other. In 80%...
The Importance of Corroboration Within a Confession
Apr 01, 2003
Within the last year numerous inmates have been released from prison and had their convictions overturned as the result of post-trial exculpatory evidence. Many of these individuals confessed to...
The Use of the Restitution Question During an Interrogation
Mar 01, 2003
During training in the Reid Nine Steps of Interrogation, we teach that when a suspect appears to be ready to confess the investigator should ask an alternative question. As an example the...
Background Investigations Conducted Over the Telephone: Part II
Feb 01, 2003
Phrasing Interview Questions
In the January web tip suggestions were offered for initiating a telephone interview. At the outset of a telephone interview, the investigator's goals are to (1) elicit a...
Background Investigations Conducted Over the Telephone: Part I
Jan 01, 2003
Starting the Interview
Recently I was interviewed by telephone concerning the suitability of an acquaintance applying for a job involving national security. The interviewer started out saying...
Handling The Angry Suspect
Dec 01, 2002
Every investigator has encountered a subject who exhibits symptoms of anger. Of all possible emotions, anger presents the greatest impairment of an investigator's ability to detect deception and persuade a suspect...