Interviews Flashcards
An interview is questioning people who are not suspects in a crime but know something about it or the people involved. Most cases are solved through good interviewing techniques. What are the techniques?
- Someone who is lying will usually tell a story exactly the same way several times.
- Repetition is the best way to obtain recall and to uncover lies.
- A truthful story will contain the same facts but be phrased differently each time it is retold.
Before interrogating any suspect, you must give the Miranda warning. Suspects must be informed of their right to remain silent, to have an attorney present and to have a state appointed attorney appointed if they cannot afford private counsel. What is needed to prove Miranda was given?
A wavier of rights should be accompanied by a written or witnessed oral statement that the waiver was voluntary.
Interrogation techniques include directly or indirectly, forcing responses, deflating or inflating the ego, minimizing or maximizing the crime, projecting the blame or rationalizing and combining approaches. The inquiry, “What time did you and your wife leave the restaurant?” Is an example of what type inquiry?
Direct Inquiry
A ________ is a legal narrative description of events related to a crime. It is more or less formal, exact, detailed presentation. It begins with an introduction that gives the place, time, date and names of the people conducting and present at the interview.
Statement.
When evaluating and corroborating information you do what three things?
- Do not accept information obtained from interviews and interrogations at face value.
- Always verify your information.
- Corroborate or disprove statements made during questioning.
An investigator must constantly review and evaluate evidence when preparing a case for court. Videotapes are being used increasingly in court for many cases. Who is allowed to use videotapes for court presentations?
Expert witnesses with heavy time commitments may be allowed to testify by way of videotape.
An obvious advantage of _________ is that they accurately represent the crime scene in court. They can be taken immediately and are highly effective visual aids that corroborate the facts presented.
Crime scene photography
When photographing a crime scene, you should take sufficient photographs to reconstruct the entire scene. What are the normal succession of photographs?
- Entrance point
- Crime commission area
- Exit point
Like interviews, interrogations are conducted as soon as possible after the crime is committed. Most interrogations are conducted at police headquarters, however if a suspect refuses and there is insufficient evidence for an arrest, what location would be the best advantage to the investigator for an interview?
A unfamiliar place away from family and friends.
Investigators use questions and repetition effectively and also know how to interview reluctant interviewees. No matter what particular technique or combination of techniques you select, you should follow what two basic requirements?
Listen and observe
Often, investigators during the course of an interrogation may fabricate evidence, make promises, use the good cop/Bad cop routine misrepresenting the seriousness of the offense or misrepresenting identity such as posing as a cellmate. While it may not be public knowledge that police lie to suspects, the use of deception during an interrogation is considered to be;
Unethical
Note taking is an acquired skill that every investigator should acquire. Notes should be brief, legible, abbreviated that others can understand. Which statement would an investigator likely use for recording a statement in his/her notebook?
Witness found Joe Smith shot inside the men’s room at 2:30pm at the LaBuca restaurant located 800 Locust Street.
In addition to an accurate, complete, well structured narrative, an effective report exhibits several other characteristics. What are characteristics of effective reports?
- Always write in the past tense throughout the report. Past tense shows events that already happened.
- Use the third person when referring to yourself in the report. The report should list you as “This investigator/Officer”
- Reports should be concise and avoid wordiness.
Collecting, marking, and identifying evidence is one of the responsibilities of the investigator. How evidence is collected directly influences its later value. What are the best practices to collecting evidence? (3 ways)
- Two officers are ideal for collecting evidence, one collects while the other records
- Make the marking easily recognizable and as small as possible to reduce the possibility of destroying part of the evidence.
- A pen is suitable for some objects but a stylus is used for more permanent mark that cannot be marked with a pen.
A basic function of investigators is to conduct a thorough, legal search at the scene of a crime. What are crime scene search patterns?
- Circle search pattern
- Aerial search pattern
- Zone or sector search pattern