In an article entitled, False Confessions, Technology, and Where We Go From Here, written by Brian Wallace and published on January 13, 2025 online at WebProNews , the author describes a number of police tactics he says cause false confessions, including:

• Prolonged questioning: Wearing You Down
  

The article describes how the police engage in "prolonged questioning. Interrogations can last for hours without giving you a real break. The longer you’re kept in an interrogation room, the more likely you are to become fatigued, confused, and emotionally drained. This is exactly what interrogators want. They rely on your exhaustion to lower your resistance and make you more likely to agree to their narrative.

Sleep deprivation is often a byproduct of prolonged questioning. When you’re sleep-deprived, your decision-making abilities decline, and your ability to think critically or remember events accurately is severely impaired. This makes you more susceptible to suggestion and coercion."

The author states that another tactic that interrogators employ is

• Psychological Pressure: Breaking You Mentally

In discussing psychological pressure the author specifically references the Reid Technique, stating that “One of the most common techniques is the Reid Technique, which involves a nine-step process designed to increase anxiety while offering confession as a way to relieve that stress. Officers may... threaten harsher consequences if you don’t cooperate."

Furthermore, the article quotes an attorney describing the interrogation process to include "forbidding the suspect from having any outside contact with friends or family."

In fact, the behaviors that the author describes are in absolute violation of the Core Principles and Best Practices of the Reid Technique, as outlined in our book, Criminal Interrogation and Confessions, 5th ed, 2013, and on our website as detailed in numerous Investigator Tips. We teach investigators:

• Do not make any promises of leniency

• Do not threaten the subject with any physical harm or inevitable consequences

• Do not deny the subject any of their rights

• Do not deny the subject the opportunity to satisfy their physical needs

• Withhold information about the details of the crime from the subject so that if the subject confesses the disclosure of that information can be used to confirm the authenticity of the statement

• Exercise special cautions when questioning juveniles or individuals with mental or psychological impairments

• Always treat the subject with dignity and respect

• Conduct an interview before any interrogation. Absent a life-saving circumstance the investigator should conduct a non-accusatory interview before engaging in any interrogation

• Conduct an interrogation only when there is a reasonable belief that the suspect committed the issue under investigation or is withholding relevant information

• Attempt to verify the suspect's alibi before conducting an interrogation

• When interrogating a non-custodial suspect, do not deprive the suspect from his freedom to leave the room

• Do not conduct excessively long interrogations

• When a suspect claims to have little or no memory for the time period when the crime was committed the investigator should not lie to the suspect concerning incriminating evidence

• Electronically record the interview and interrogation

• The confession is not the end of the investigation.

• Following the confession, the investigator should investigate the confession details in an effort to establish the authenticity of the subject's statement, as well as attempt to establish the suspect's activities before and after the commission of the crime.

The author apparently made no effort whatsoever to review our published materials or to contact us for information about the Reid Technique..