Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

PART II: LAW ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES
The following sections of the paper review the interrogation training and
practices of various law enforcement organizations. While not an exhaustive
survey of all such organizations, the information provides a window into training
available to federal, state, and city law enforcement officers in the United States.
Additionally, to offer some comparative perspective, we provide an overview of
interrogation training and practices in Great Britain and Israel.
Section 6. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI
Academy at Quantico, Virginia) 575
The FBI Academy provides training to all future FBI agents. The new agent
training consists of 17 weeks of instruction totaling 643.5 hours. As part of this
training program, the FBI offers 15 classes, totaling 69 hours, on interviewing
and interrogation. Of this program, 9 classes are devoted to interrogation, totaling
27 hours of training. The interrogation curriculum covers, if only generally,
interrogation theory and practice. The training also offers two practical exercises
on interrogation, each lasting about 25–50 minutes. Finally, the training pays
constant attention to the documentation and forms that agents must complete and
file in connection with interrogations. According to FBI Academy staff, this last
element of the training — necessary filings and documentation — represents a
substantial portion of the time and attention allocated to interrogation training.
Four hours of training about detection of deception are also included in the
aforementioned 69 hours of general interview/interrogation training.
According to literature provided to trainees, “a successful interrogation
results in a guilty or involved criminal suspect’s making a confession or admitting
participation in an illegal activity.” 576 However, this avowed goal of obtaining
confessions is downplayed by other staff members of the FBI Academy, who
clarify that interrogation is best conceived of as a means to lower resistance to
telling the truth. FBI Academy staff add that entering an interrogation with the
sole goal of obtaining a confession means setting oneself up for failure. Whatever
the ultimate objective, the FBI has adopted what it calls the Direct Accusation
Approach as its chosen method of interrogation. This approach, whose elements
are described below, closely tracks the Reid Technique, with the major difference
being that the FBI’s approach relies on confronting the suspect with the evidence
available to motivate a confession.
Like Reid, the FBI training teaches agents to conduct a pre-interrogation
interview. The FBI offers its agents the following eight-step process to guide
them through the interview, which are the same steps followed in interviewing
witnesses and victims:
575
Unless otherwise referenced, the information in this section is derived from a visit to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation Academy, Quantico, Virginia, 8-9 March 2005. Our host during the visit was
Brian Boetig, Supervisory Special Agent in the Bureau’s Law Enforcement Communication Unit.
576
D. Vessel, Conducting Successful Interrogations (Quantico, VA: Interviewing and Interrogation
Law Enforcement Communication Unit, FBI Academy, revised 14 October 2004), 70.
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