Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

3. Establish confidence and friendliness by talking for a period
about everyday subjects. In other words, have a ‘friendly visit.’
4. Keep conversation informal and easy.
5. Display pleasant emotional responses and avoid unpleasant
expressions.
6. Urge the subject, but never try to hurry him.
7. Do not ask questions that lead a witness or subject to believe
you are suspicious of him, either by composition of the question
or by method of asking.
8. Appear interested and sympathetic to his problems.
9. Do not begin the interview or interrogation until the subject
appears to be quite friendly and cooperative.
10. Try to re-establish rapport at any time during the questioning if
the subject appears to become reserved or hostile.” 449
Also important in building rapport is conveying the desired image of the
interviewer to the suspect. The interviewer must appear sympathetic, sincere,
impartial, empathetic, and firm, all at the same time. 450
Aubry emphasizes the importance of even the investigator’s entrance, writing
that “he must [enter] with an intangible air which adds up to confidence, confidence
in himself, and confidence in his ability to carry out a successful interrogation; he
must exude this air of confidence.” 451 To build rapport while maintaining this air
of confidence, Aubry suggests the following techniques to be used at the initial
phase of the interview/interrogation:
1. Have the suspect identify himself.
2. Use only the suspect’s first or last name, and never use “Mr.”
3. The interrogator should insist that the suspect call him “Mr.”
as this “aids the interrogator in securing and maintaining the
psychological advantage over the subject.”
4. The interrogator should approach the suspect with “an air of
resolution and firmness” but not “be so forbidding that the
subject quickly makes up his mind that the interrogator is ‘out
to get him at all costs.’”
5. The investigator must quickly size up the suspect, “rapidly and
efficiently analyzing the personality, temperament, and makeup
of the subject.”
449
Id., p. 61-62.
450
Id., p. 65-66.
451
Aubry and Caputo, see note 406, p. 150.
181