Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

that indicate deception, and to note the content of the question asked right before
the cluster of behavior is observed. The curriculum emphasizes that there is no
single indicator of deception, that students must observe all body language and
speech presented by the subject, and that their ability to detect deception will
grow with experience.
As noted, because 81 agencies are involved in setting the curriculum, and
because each lecture class contains either 24 or 48 students, the instructors find
that they must teach to the lowest common denominator. At the same time, many
of the instructors echo the belief of other law enforcement personnel that the best
way to learn is by doing and thus they place particular emphasis on the practical
exercises. The exercises use role-players hired from the local community and
are as realistic as possible. They are conducted in mock-up offices or other
settings to give them a realistic feel, and the students are allowed to set up the
furniture as they see fit. In addition, the scenarios for the various interviews are
somewhat tailored to the specific agency for which the student will work (e.g., a
Secret Service agent may face a scenario involving counterfeit currency); there
are currently 16 different scenarios in use, each with a detailed case history, list
of potential violations, and various pieces of evidence. The instructor sits in a
corner of the room and silently observes the interview, while cameras overhead
record the interactions from several angles. Generally one student takes the role
of primary interrogator, with the other student acting as the secondary who takes
notes, follows up with any additional questions, presents the summary, and in
rare cases jumps in to take over the primary role if the other agent loses control
of the interrogation. After the practical exercise is complete, the students receive
individualized feedback from the instructor in the room. In addition, they have an
opportunity to review the videotape of the interrogation and critique themselves
(critiques that, according to one instructor, are usually harsher than those provided
by the instructors). This allows for teaching at various levels based on individual
students’ needs, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach of the lectures.
The training provided by FLETC through the CITP and the other programs
covers only the minimum requirements to be a competent federal law enforcement
agent. The individual agencies then conduct “add-on” courses, either at their
home facilities or through FLETC or private contractors. FLETC also provides
advanced courses in interviewing and interrogation techniques. These courses
are generally available to more senior agents from the various agencies on a
voluntary basis, and are taught either by FLETC instructors or, more often, by
outside contractors. The major contractor for many years was the Reid School,
though recently FLETC has begun to use Wicklander-Zulawski and Associates.
Wicklander-Zulawski, however, teaches the Reid approach as well, under a
special license.
The FLETC instructors indicate that they do not know how much of the
training provided in CITP and the other programs actually makes it to “the
street.” The only opportunity that instructors have to evaluate the efficacy of their
programs (other than survey feedback from the students and agencies) occurs
when former students return to FLETC for advanced training. At that point the
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