Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

The CITP supplements the lectures with lab exercises (ungraded) and practical
exercises (graded) where students conduct interviews and interrogations with roleplaying
actors. The number of overall exercises in which each student participates
varies somewhat by agency, but those participating in the CITP Confrontational
Interview Practical Exercise spend four hours in the session, with each student
conducting an interrogation and receiving personalized feedback for about
an hour of that time. In addition, FLETC offers courses in basic interviewing,
communication in interviewing, response analysis, cognitive interviewing
technique, multiple suspect elimination technique (through interviews), field
interviewing, advanced investigative interviewing, and other suspect interview
techniques. The goal behind this varied program is not to tie the students to a
particular regimen, but instead to give them basic interview and interrogation
tools that they can use flexibly in the field.
However, FLETC does provide its students with an overarching schema
for the interview/interrogation process that closely tracks both the Reid School
techniques and the FBI’s Direct Accusation Approach, though not necessarily by
design. The goal of any interview or interrogation, according to FLETC, is to
elicit useful, truthful information. In an interrogation, the goal is to elicit a truthful
confession or at least a detailed lie that can be used in a later interrogation or
prosecution. The major distinguishing feature of the technique taught by FLETC
is the detailed presentation of the evidence to the suspect, a tactic advocated by the
FBI, but rejected by the Reid Technique. According to FLETC, because the agents
trained at the Center generally deal with more sophisticated suspects than do the
police, it is virtually impossible to get them to confess without showing them the
evidence. Thus, as discussed below, FLETC trains its agents to make a monologue
presentation of the evidence to the suspect as part of the interrogation.
Before starting the interrogation, FLETC students are taught to prepare
a topical outline. The outline, meant to be used both in the practical exercises
in class and in the field as preparation for actual interviews and interrogations,
should include the following areas:
1. Interview/Interrogation Site
2. Objectives of the Interview/Interrogation
3. Purpose Statements (to be given to suspect)
4. Rapport Areas
5. General Questions
6. Possible Themes
7. Choice Questions
The topical outline not only prepares the agents for the encounter, but
also forces them to examine their preceding research and identify gaps in their
information. For instance, if they cannot write down a few areas where they will
be able to establish rapport, they in theory have not learned enough about their
suspect. The outline is meant to be used as a guide throughout the encounter with
the suspect, but agents are taught that they should be ready to throw it out if the
interrogation veers off in a different direction than expected.
210