week 9

• Evidence and Interviewing
• PFD 445 – W2024
• Week 9: Non-Accusatory Interviews
• Professor Mark Altermann, M.A.
• Today


  1. Review

  2. IP Review

  3. Discuss SA 1 assignment

  4. The Non- Accusatory interview video segment

  5. Q & A
• Before the break


  • Duties of the police (Charter)
  • RTC, Opportunity to consult, Hold off
  • Statement Admissibility Issues
  • Voluntariness
  • Limit, log, crown, call
  • Inducement (quid pro quo)
  • Threats/Promises/Coercion
  • Operating mind
  • Oppressive practices
  • Trickery
  • Belittling counsel
  • Trinity
  • Oickle
  • Sinclair
  • Singh
  • and other case law
  • Consequences
  • Exclusion of evidence
  • Statement
  • Physical items
  • 'Fruit of a poison tree'
• Tools


  • KSA's
  • Setting
  • Technology / Backup
  • Preparation & Planning
  • Research
  • IP
  • Props (SUE... later in the course)
  • Team
• Interview Room


  • Hard – uncertain, in-custody, KGB
  • Observation window
  • Soft - victim, witnesses, children
  • Built in Tech
  • Audio recorder backup
  • Sound insulation
  • Fixed vs Rolling Chair
  • Posture, Body language, Mirroring
  • Space 3-4 ft. to maneuver
  • Eye contact without staring
• Preparation


  1. Know your SUBJECT

  2. Other witnesses, family, friends

  3. Social Media

  4. Know the DETAILS of the event

  5. Read case file

  6. CA information

  7. Visit or View crime scene images, video, drawings (blueprints), etc

  8. Have an Interview PLAN

  9. Set goals
• Type of Interviews


  • Unstructured interviews
  • Statement Taking
  • Semi-structured interviews
  • Structured Interviews
• Unstructured interviews


  Use a very loose set of goals and questions can be Open-Ended or Closed (Yes-or-no) questions
• Statement Taking


  Fact focused to meet general data gathering needs. Often a "first contact/witness" activity, that later, can lead to a semi-structured interview
• Structured Interviews


  Use a highly structured format that support activities like a Polygraph test
• It's essential to adhere to the highest professional standards and a commitment to protecting and defending rights, including those of a suspect
• Subjecting a suspect to intimidation, threats, or violence, whether physical or psychological, to obtain information, implicate another person or extract a confession will be accepted as evidence in court
• It is a component of CI/ECI, Conversation Management, PEACE, REID and PIM
• Benefits of an information gathering approach

  • POI and the suspect find them more cognitively challenging
  • Can result in more verbal cues to deceit
  • Can result in more non-verbal cues to deceit
• ALL subjects being interviewed start out as "witnesses"
• Subjects being interviewed

  • Victims
  • Eyewitnesses
  • Persons of Interest (POI)
  • The person who "DID IT" or eventually confesses to it
• Non-Accusatory Interviewing

  • Non-Accusatory Approach
  • Information & Truth focused
  • Appropriate questioning for reliable data
  • Neutral tone, interested & engaged demeanor
  • Effective non-verbal communication
  • A "working alliance" with investigators
• Non-Accusatory Interviewing


  • "Tell me everything about what happened"
  • "You said __ happened, what happened next?"
  • "You said __, what does that mean/ mean to you?"
  • "Why do you think _____?"
  • "What led to _____?"
• Accusatory


  • "You're not telling the truth here"
  • "You're not telling me everything"
  • "Don't lie to me"
  • "I can See it in your face, you are holding back"
  • "I know you planned it, tell me why that store"
  • "It's clear from the content of this file you are responsible for …"
• Pure Version Statement – (Original Pure Version- OPV)

  • 1st time through the incident
  • Open ended questions
  • Uninterrupted, in their own words
  • Free from contamination
  • Follow up at the end
  • It can be as long or as short as they wish and can contain WHATEVER THEY CHOOSE TO TELL US
  • Video, then Audio, then written
• WHY OPV?


  • Good source of verbal and and physical baselines
  • As free (as possible) from Contamination
  • Statement Analysis
  • Can reveal "sensitive" areas in the statement
  • Information that doesn't make sense (out of place, emotion)
  • Changes in language
  • Missing information
  • Indications of Deception
• You get what you ask for!
• During an interview with a POI in a murder of a waitress, the detective asked "Did you go to the restaurant to visit her?"


  The POI said "No."
• Later, the detective spoke to the POI again telling him "You lied to me. When I asked you, 'Did you go to the restaurant to visit her?' you said 'No.' and since then I found witnesses who saw you going to the restaurant."

  The POI said "But I didn't go to the restaurant to visit her."
• Questions


  • Tell me about...
  • Please explain...
  • Describe what ...
  • Help me understand...
  • Listen to and Analyze the answers to "what happened" and then dig deeper into their answer
  • When you say _____ , what do you mean exactly ?
  • Which means ….?
  • How so ?
• OPEN Ended Questions


  • Tell me...
  • Explain...
  • Why ?
  • How so?
• OPEN Ended questions that allow the SUBJECT to develop the narrative are Good questions
• PARAMETER Question


  "Tell me what happened between, when you got up in the morning, and when you arrived at work"
• ECHO


  Repeat back what the person said
• LEADING Question


  "Didn't he say…?" "Was the gun Silver or Black?"
• Investigating INCONSISTENCIES


  1. The HAMBURGER

  2. If you think a challenge might be CONFRONTATIONAL turn it into a "burger" i.e. place it in-between positive feedback
• No Subject is off limits as long as it is relevant to the investigation at hand
• Adopt to the language of the subject (Parrot back) and use words or phrases they use
• Subject: "I've never been sexually involved with him"

  Interviewer: "What do you mean by sexually involved?"
• Don't leak your emotions or beliefs
• Remember to stay non-accusatory
• Subject: "There are any number of people who could have been in there."

  Interviewer: "Who?"