See our new Investigtor Tip, The Reid Technique: Science-Based Interviewing, whichbegins as follows:

For over 7 decades, the Reid Technique has employed and has been based on “science-based methodology.”

At the American Psychology-Law Society conference in Los Angeles in March 2024, there were several references to the fact that "investigators must move past 'psychologically manipulative tactics' and adopt a science-based methodology to assess subject credibility.” In discussions and publications psychologically manipulative tactics have been described as isolating the subject from others; exaggerating the legal consequences of the subject’s behavior; making promises of leniency in return for a confession; creating false evidence; and conducting questioning for an exhaustively lengthy period of time.” As detailed in this article, the Reid Technique teaches investigators never to engage in any of these activities or making any of these statements.

In their August 26, 2016 report (“Interrogation: A Review of the Science, High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group September 2016) the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group described science-based interviewing/interrogation as including.

• the development of cooperation via rapport and trust
• the elicitation of information using productive questioning to enhance a subject’s recollection
• the use of strategic questioning and assessment of verbal or story-based cues to evaluate credibility; and,
• the strategic withholding of evidence as a way to identify statement-evidence inconsistencies and resolve a subject’s responses to discrepancies.”

The HIG description above describes the Reid Technique interview process.

Click Here to go the the continuation of this Investigator Tip