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.”

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