In an article entitled, Forensic Psychology: The Reid Technique, by Jason Frowley, he makes numerous misinformed and erroneous statements about the Reid Technique.

For example, he writes that the decision to interrogate a subject is predicated on whether or not they exhibit the verbal and nonverbal behaviors (as described by Reid) that are suggestive of a truthful vs deceptive individual during the investigative interview (the Behavior Analysis interview or BAI):

“You will have noticed the major, controversial assumption of the BAI: that the interrogator is capable of telling if and when you are lying. This is far from a given. Psychologists have found laypeople to be able to detect deceit about 54% of the time (slightly better than guesswork); professionals slightly more often.”

The author fails to inform the reader that the primary basis for an investigator’s decision as to whether or not to interrogate a suspect is the basic principle, do the case facts and evidence support the subject’s statement, or do they contradict the subject’s statement? Consider the following case: